These facts of life
by Not Just a Nerd
Summary: History repeats itself as Justin and Alex's kids fall in love. These facts of life were so twisted. If only they knew these before they fell in love. JUSTIN/ALEX. OC/OC. Future-fic. Completed.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own wowp.**

**Acknowledgment: Plot/theme by Baku Babe, title also by her. Thanks buddy :)**

**A/N: I'm getting into full jalex right from chapter 1, the prologue establishes the story background.

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**These facts of life**

**Prologue**

**Year 1980**

_Megan Russo yanked her wand out of the evil witch's hand, as her brothers stared at the two of them. _

"_Be careful, Megan." Jerry warned. "She's way more powerful than you!"_

_Megan scoffed. "Thanks for sharing your high opinion about me, Jerry!" she turned around, facing him, hands on her hips, glaring at him. _

_And the evil witch was ready to strike from behind, her hands raised, wand ready._

"_Megan, watch out!" Jerry yelled, quickly lifting his wand up in the air and muttering a spell that split the evil witch's wand in half. _

_The evil witch shrieked out in fury. "How dare you defy me? Why did you dare to pick a fight with me? Do you wish to die in the most painful way?"_

_Jerry shrugged, grabbing Megan by the arm and tugging her behind so that she couldn't attack. His throat was dry in fear, but he knew he had to do this. "I did it for my sister."_

_The evil witch glared at them, eyes shining with anger and hatred. "_**You destroyed my wand for your sister? Now you will face my wrath. Your future will be shrouded in extreme misery. Your son will destroy ****everything ****for his sister! Your son is going to fall for your daughter!**_"_

"_NO!" Jerry cried out loudly, but by that time, the curse was placed and the witch was gone. _

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**Year 1992 **

"_It's a girl." Jerry sighed, staring at his new-born daughter, still wrapped in blankets. The house was buzzing with music and laughter as his older son listened to nursery rhymes, totally ignoring the presence of another child in the house. _

_Theresa sighed too. "Jerry, are you still worried about that stupid curse?" _

"_That curse was very powerful." Jerry snapped, staring at his little girl protectively. "I do have a son and a daughter, so how do you know it won't come true? I don't want Justin to fall for Alex... look at her; she's sleeping so peacefully…" _

_Theresa ran a hand over her little girl's head, clutching her closer to her chest. "I don't want anything to happen to them either… Isn't there something we can do?"_

_Jerry thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not a wizard anymore, so, we'll need to consult someone from the wizard world I guess." _

_

* * *

_

"_It may be too late." Professor Crumbs declared sadly. "The curse was placed years ago. It has become permanent by now." _

"_Isn't there anything you could do?" Theresa asked anxiously, almost pleading, desperate. "Anything?" _

_Professor Crumbs stroked his beard. "Well… I can place another curse to prevent the prediction of the first curse from coming true… but it may be dangerous." He warned. "The second curse will serve its purpose, but it may have consequences. It can hurt your children too." _

"_Do it." Jerry decided immediately, without a doubt or a second thought. Anything to stop incest._

_So the curse was placed- "_**If Justin and Alex ever start having non-platonic feelings for each other, if Justin ever decides to destroy everything for Alex, something must hold him back every time he wants to try to be with her**_." _

_It was decided that Justin and Alex would not be informed about this, just so they can have a normal life…and so they grew up, completely unaware of the two curses placed on them. If only they knew these facts of life before they fell in love…_

**

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2025**

"Come on, Em, get off the phone!" Alex hissed, pointing at the watch on her wrist, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. She had been on the phone for 2 hours- 2 freaking hours- and yet she was showing no signs of ending the call. "_You are cute. You're so funny. You're adorable" _was still going on. "Emmy!" she hissed again, finally yanking the phone out of her daughter's hand and throwing it away.

"Hey! I was talking to my boyfriend!" Amelia yelled at her mother, almost stumbling from the stool as she tried to snatch the phone back. Black eyes, black curly locks, and snarky comments ready on her lips- she was a fifteen year old replica of her mother. "I don't wanna live alone like you, you know?"

Alex spun around, leaning forward dangerously, and pointed a finger at her daughter distastefully. Her eyes narrowed, eyebrows knitting together. "Sorry I decided to be a single mother and raise you properly."

Amelia winced. "Mom…" her voice was regretful. "I didn't mean it like that…."

Alex closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, counting to five. "I know what you meant. Finish packing."

Amelia shrugged off the stool she was sitting on, skipping to her mother, grabbing her hand, and dragging her to her room. "I'm so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa again."

"I am not." Alex chuckled, faking a shudder. "They are going to start lecturing me about marriage again. Ew."

Amelia shrugged. "Maybe they won't. I mean, Uncle Justin is going to be there this time… man I can't wait to meet him! Is he really as uptight as he seems on the phone?"

Alex laughed. "Of course not! He's way more uptight in person." And then she stiffened, as she realized, once again, that she was going to meet Justin after 12 years, 12 years since…

"Yawnathan is coming too, right mom?" Amelia asked excitedly, clapping her hands together like a little girl. She sat down on her bed, taking out her journal from under her pillow and slipping it into her back-pack.

"Jonathan." Alex corrected, raising an eyebrow at her skeptically. "You are actually excited to meet your cousin?"

Amelia grinned evilly, "Hey, I bet it'd be more fun to mess with him in person than on the internet."

"Amelia." Alex warned, putting on a serious expression on her face forcefully. "I don't think Justin would take that lightly. And trust me; you don't want to annoy Justin."

"Oh yeah." Amelia laughed, shaking her head. "I forgot about his attitude problems."

"It's not like that!" Alex protested, coming off a bit defensive. Realizing that, she tried to laugh it off casually. "I mean, Justin wasn't always like this. Raising a child on your own is very difficult, Em. It can change you."

Amelia stared at her mother, looking straight into her eyes. "Is that everything mom?"

Alex scoffed, looking away uncomfortably. "What do you mean?"

Amelia sighed, staring blankly at the ground. "You talk to Uncle Max every day. You and Uncle Justin… it's like you maintain some kind of barrier between yourselves. I feel like I don't know the whole story."

"There _is_ no story." Alex waved her hand dismissively, walking out of the room. "I'm too tired to deal with you right now. Just use magic and finish packing! And go to bed early, Em. The flight's tomorrow morning."

* * *

"…_You and Uncle Justin… it's like you maintain some kind of barrier between yourselves. I feel like I don't know the whole story." _

Alex sighed, taking out the old photo hidden inside her pillow. The picture showed her, standing next to Justin, leaning her head on his shoulder. Amelia was tucked under his arm, while Jonathan was in hers. She ran her hand over the photo, a smile on her lips, tears in her eyes, as she revisited the memory in her mind. This was the one of the rare happy moments she had with her full family.

Taking one last look at the photograph, she took out the other photo hidden in her pillow, the photo of her and little Jonathan. She ran her fingers over his face, his eyes, his little fingers that gripped her hand. Tears slipped from her eyes and spilled over the photo, bathing it in her pain.

It was so hard to stay away from her little son. It was so hard to accept the fact that her daughter would never know who her father is, his son wouldn't know his mother, and the two siblings would know they were cousins. It was the best way, the best possible life for their children. Even if it meant she and Justin had to live away from each other and sacrifice their love…. It was almost like their fate was keeping them apart!

She sighed, lying down on her bed, head buried in her pillow as she held the pillow with the photographs close to her heart. These facts of life were so twisted! Sometimes they scared her, it scared her to acknowledge the fact that she and Justin couldn't be together. If only they had known these facts before they fell in love!

She closed her eyes, taking in a mouthful of air. She was going to have to face Justin the next day again….

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A/N: what did you think? Please don't be ticked off by the OCs, every chapter will have enough jalex. This is my last jalex chapter-fic, I'll make it special. Please review and send me feedback! **


	2. Ch 1:  Love remains same

**Chapter 1: Everything will change, love remains same….

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**Year 2010**

_College sucked. That was her conclusion. At first, she had been thrilled about getting away from her parents' watchful eyes and living her life the way she wanted, but as soon as her mom, her dad, and Max hugged her goodbye, she realized she was going to be all alone here, and hence the tears and the longing. Justin stood by, watching silently. She knew he'd be dropping by all the time._

_One week, and she hated college. Her room-mate Abby was the brand ambassador for the color pink- pink dress, pink bed-sheets, pink highlights in hair, pink lip-gloss, pink eye-shadow, pink slippers (not to mention they were fuzzy), pink cell phone, pink laptop- everything that belonged to her was pink. Alex could feel her eyes hurt all the time. Her head hurt too, when the girl was being all nice and sweet and polite and friendly to her, and kept on talking and talking and talking and… well, she fell asleep listening to her talk. She missed Harper so much! Why did she have to be in another floor? Couldn't they just switch over?_

_On top of all this was the complicated campus. She would never admit it to anyone, but she got lost every single day. She was convinced that colleges needed better signage. And better wifi. And better food. And better beds. And better room. And better, well, everything. _

_

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_

"_Are you sure you don't need any help?" Justin asked on the phone, his wand already ready in his hand, the door to his dorm-room already shut. _

_Alex placed the phone between her shoulder and her ears, and dragged a chair to the wall where she intended to hang some of her art works. She knew the authorities wouldn't be happy when they found out she had destroyed their wall, but hey, who cares about stupid rules? An art student should be allowed to display her art! "What makes you think I'd need your help?" _

_He shrugged, dangling his wand in his hand, scrutinizing it for the tiniest speck of dirt. "Well, when I first moved into my dorm, I did face a lot of trouble."_

"_You would. You don't know how to make friends with kids your age." She teased, browsing through her art collection and trying to decide which she should hang first. _

"_I have friends my age." He snapped, jaw tensing already. "Let me tell you, Mr. X is just thirty."_

_She laughed at that, biting back the retort- his own words made a fool of him anyway- and concentrating on hanging the pictures on the wall. And that's when she noticed she didn't have a nail. Or a hammer. "Damn." She cursed under her breath. _

_He smirked. "Go ahead, ask for help."_

_She scoffed. "Don't need it… why don't you just admit that you can't wait to come here?" _

"_Speak for yourself." He teased in a sing-song voice, the wand steady in his hand again. "Lock the door."_

_She obeyed, and waited for him to teleport. When he did, instead of all the beating around the bush and seeing who gave in first, she ran to his arms straight-away. "You're here, finally!" she mumbled into his chest, her hands wrapped around his back securely. "I hate this place!" _

_He smiled, placing his head on top of hers. "You should be glad you got into a college." _

_She scoffed again, pulling away and sticking out her tongue at him. "Like I care."_

"_I beg to differ." He grinned, his hands trailing down to grip her around the waist, and furrowed his eyebrows together, like he was trying to remember something. "Last time I checked, you said something about college being the best way we could be together."_

_She glared at him, stepping on his feet intentionally. "If you are done with the dork talk, can we get to work? I need help hanging these things. I can't find-"_

_He grabbed her arm, pulled her against him, and shushed her. "I had something else in mind…" He grinned, his thumb gently stroking cheek. "Aren't you going to welcome your boyfriend to your new room?" _

_She scrunched up her nose in fake confusion. "But I didn't invite you here. You just-"_

_He clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "Try again." _

_She smiled brightly, getting up on her tiptoes and pressing her lips against his. "Gosh I missed you." _

_His hand went up to her hair, stroking her lightly. "I missed you too… I was just waiting for the weekend so badly." _

_She closed her eyes and sighed contently. Now that he was here, this was the best place in the world, and she was the happiest person ever alive. She felt like she would melt into a puddle of emotions with all the feelings she felt surging inside her. "I love you…." _

_His knees became weak every time she said those words. This time too, he felt like his legs would give way. So he pulled back from her slightly, took her hand in his, and made her sit on the bed. With his free hand, he lifted his chin up, smiled at her and made her look into his eyes as he lost himself in hers. "I love you too…. You are everything to me…" _

_She smiled back happily, her eyes fluttering shut again, as he leant closer to her. Just when their lips were about to touch, his cell phone rang. _

_She whined, putting her hands up in her air in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" _

"_Sorry." He winced, taking his phone out of the pocket, half-expecting her to snatch it and break it then and there. "I've gotta take this, it's mom."_

_She groaned, lying down on her bed, but did not protest. She dangled her feet, kicking him effectively, and he shot her a deadly glare. _

"_Hey mom…. I'm at Alex's dorm now…. No, she's not in trouble…. No, I'm not in trouble. She just needs help with decorating her room. So why did you call?... Really? Me?... Okay. I'll be there in a minute then." _

"_Oh great", she mumbled under her breath as he hung up. _

"_Dad's not feeling good." He explained, looking at her apologetically, a bit worried and a bit tired. "He wants me to come and check him out."_

_She sat back up, crossing her arms over her chest, pouting. "You're not a doctor yet." _

_He shrugged, sighed, shoved his hand inside his pockets, and kicked an imaginary stone on the ground. "You know how dad is. He won't see a doctor till he knows it's serious." _

_She rolled her eyes, fully getting up and hugging him again. She chuckled, shaking her head. "I think I know why dad finally agreed to send you to med-school." _

_He chuckled too, pulling back and placing a chaste kiss on her lips. _

"_Call me when you check on dad." She ordered, pulling away from him reluctantly, slowly untangling her hand from his, her fingers trying to hold on to the last second of touch. _

_He nodded, smiling at her apologetically again, and teleported away. _

_She blinked, staring at the blank space where he had been standing just seconds back. She hated it when these things happened, and they happened all the time. It was as if fate was messing with them, every time they were looking forward to being with each other. At that moment, the room seemed emptier than before, her heart felt heavier than ever, and everything that she laid her eyes on seemed dull. _

_On second thoughts, college sucked. _

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**Year 2025 **

And she remembered why she always hated reunions- the hugs, the tears, the narration of awkward incidents of her childhood- could her mom be more embarrassing?- the promises of feeding her till she was as fat as an elephant.

And the changes that she had to notice even when she didn't want too, like her mother's hair graying, or her father's weight gain, or Max's… well, he would never grow up much. She smiled, taking in the changes in her old house, like she was trying to point out every single thing that was different. Her eyes shone with tears as she picked up the photo of her whole family back from her teenage days. Her eyes met _his_ in the photo, and her heart was electrocuted.

"When was Justin's flight supposed to land, Alex?" Theresa asked impatiently.

Her heart jumped at the mention of his name. She had no idea how that reunion would go. Would they be polite and cordial and just smile at each other? Or would they be JustinandAlex and hug till they crushed each other?

She looked at her watch. Her heart sped up as she remembered the time he had mentioned. "He should be here any minute."

"Weren't you supposed to wait for him at the airport?" Jerry asked.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, but then he called me and said his flight was delayed. We decided that I shouldn't wait. I thought Amelia would be tired, but it turns out…." She trailed off, pointing a finger at her daughter while she attacked the gifts Max had brought for her.

"You're an awesome fifteen-year old." Max complimented.

"She's not fifteen yet." Alex corrected. "She just _looks _older. And she says she's fifteen because Nathan is fifteen."

"I thought Nathan was _fifty."_ Amelia retorted, chuckling.

"I heard that", came a voice as the door swung open. Jonathan walked in, bags in his hands. "Hi guys, hey-" he couldn't complete as he was attacked with hugs by his grandparents, just like Amelia was attacked a few minutes earlier.

Alex looked on, staring at her little boy, taking in how much he had grown up, away from her eyes, how much she had missed out. Her eyes shone with tears and a glint of pride- her boy was such a fine young man.

Once they were done and Max was done greeting him, Jonathan looked at Alex. "What? No welcome?"

Alex shook her head. "No, I… I just don't know what to say. You… you're all grown up." She observed, placing her hand on his shoulders. "Wow, you're almost my height." She looked into his eyes- his grey, green eyes- and instantly a glimpse of another pair of such eyes flashed in her eyes. She shook that image away, and brushed back Jonathan's hair from his forehead lovingly.

Jonathan smiled fondly, hugging his aunt. "And you haven't aged at all! You could pass off as 25!"

Amelia coughed into her hands. "Kiss up."

Alex turned her head to glare at her, and that's when her eyes caught sight of Justin stepping in through the door. Short hair, dorky spectacles, and a clean shaved face, dressed in a casual shirt and jeans, but an unmistakable hint of stinging in his eyes, his face contorted in pain in a way that only she could notice.

She stopped breathing. Her hold on Jonathan tightened, as she clung onto him for support. All the memories from that fateful day 12 years ago were slowly coming back to her….

"Justin!" her parents ran up to him, this being his turn to be cuddled and embarrassed. When they were done, it was Max's turn, since Alex decided to stand away, stiff and clueless about what to do, overwhelmed with feelings.

"Hey, Uncle Justin", Amelia smiled sweetly, dragging him away from Max, "Did you get me the cell phone I wanted?"

Justin rolled his eyes. "How many times do I need to tell you, no A-s means no new phone?"

Amelia whined. "No fair! You are my uncle. You are supposed to pamper me, like Uncle Max does."

Justin didn't reply, just took out the gift from his pocket. "This is the last time, Em. From now on, you are going to work hard on your academics, score good marks, and-"

He was cut off by Amelia's squeal when she unwrapped her phone. He sighed, and for the first time, studied his daughter properly. It was hard to believe that she was crawling on the floor and trying to swallow everything in the house the last time he saw her. At fourteen, she was a mirror image of Alex.

….Alex. His eyes finally moved to hers, and not surprisingly, he found her staring at him expectantly. He gulped, swallowing down all the tension and the awkwardness and the bitter emotions from the past, and smiled at her.

She let out the breath she had been holding back, relieved to see that he wasn't just going to ignore her, and smiled back at him. Her breath was pained, as she realized just how different everything was from the way it was supposed to be. Because, she wasn't going to tease him about how horrible to looked, and he wasn't going to lecture her about how heels were unhealthy for the foot. This time there would be no insults, no retorts, no teasing- just looking at each other, and remembering, just seeing that they were still living and breathing in spite of everything, and just feeling the old emotions rush back to them again. The only thing that was same was how her heart throbbed when he looked at her, how a warm feeling in her heart was taking over all the pain. The only thing that was unchanged was the love.

One or both of them must have moved, because the next thing they knew, was that they were in each others' arms. Again. After 12 whole years- 378432000 painful seconds of their life.

And just like the last time, this time too, his grip on her arm was tight, his fingers almost digging into her skin, and her hold on him was firm as well, as if something might appear out of thin air and pull them apart. Seeing how their fate was, that wasn't impossible. The tears were flowing from their eyes, just like last time, his tears soaking the skin on her shoulder and her hair, her whimpers sending pangs of pain through his soul.

Forming words was so not easy.

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**Chapter title from the song "love remains same." **

**A/N: there's the first chapter for you, hope you liked it. I had a lot of fun writing this, and so the chapter turned out longer than I expected it to be…. PLEASE review and let me know! Thank you so much guys, you have always been kind and amazing! This fandom feels like home to me- only fandom where I have friends and not just readers/reviewers :)**


	3. Ch 2: You'd think I'd learn my lesson

**A/N: Remember: the curse was that Justin would fall for Alex, so Alex falling for Justin had nothing to do with that. Also, the second curse was when Justin would try to do something, it'd tear them apart, when Alex would, it wouldn't.

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**Chapter 2: You'd think that I'd learn my lesson by now…**

**Year 2025**

After the heart-warming hug was the heart-breaking part of pulling away and quietly retreating to her room. Locking the door behind her, she ran straight to her bed, jumped on it, and hid under the comfortable blankets. She clutched the blanket tightly with her fists; her eyes shut firmly in her effort to hold back the painful tears, her lips pursed, yet whimpers escaping from them. All she wanted to do was to run up to Justin and ask him to take her pain away, yet, she knew she couldn't. This feeling of helplessness was so tangible. When she was four, she wanted to keep a kitten but didn't get permission; when she was ten, she wanted a cell phone, but didn't get it. And now, she wanted Justin but didn't get him.

It was so hard to believe that she _did _get him just twelve years back. Those days felt like another lifetime, like there was an invisible barrier clouding her mind and she could just cross over to the other end and be happy ever after, like there was a tornado sweeping across her heart, and at the center of it was the happy life that she _chose _to leave behind. Sometimes she felt like she was looking at the magic mirror and seeing another universe, like that was another Alex, living happily with her lover and two adorable kids. Often in her dreams, she tried reaching out for this mirror and traveling to the other end, but a powerful force pushed her back every time, back into reality, back into misery. It woke her up from her dreams and into this wretched punishment called life. She blinked her eyes, trying to understand where she was. Looking around and seeing no Justin, she wondered if she was in purgatory. And then her daughter would peak her head through the door and she'd remember why she still bothered to breathe.

* * *

"Em, I'm trying to read", Jonathan whined in frustration, after watching his cousin pounding over her new cell phone for the last hour, a distraction that he hated having around.

Amelia looked around the room once. Her mother had already hit the bed, and she guessed so had her uncle Justin, uncle Max was, well, distracted, and her grandparents were downstairs at the sub-shop, cooking special for them. The coast was clear. She smirked at Jonathan, her voice teasing. "Jealous of my new phone?"

Jonathan peeped over his book, looking at her curiously. "Why will I be jealous? I don't like texting."

"Good for you. You don't have friends." Amelia smiled sweetly.

Jonathan huffed. "Neither do you. You are all _I'm Emily. I don't need to be nice. I hate people." _

Amelia grinned evilly. "You just admitted that you don't have friends."

"I-" he tried to protest, but sighed, and put his book away. He knew his efforts to ignore her would be completely useless. "Did you even figure out how to use the phone?"

"Hey I'm smart! I've figured out most of it!" she snarled, smacking him on the shoulder, shoving him with her hands and pushing him towards one end of the couch so that she could sit on the other end and place her legs on his lap.

He rolled his eyes. "At least take off your shoes!"

She threw a pillow at him, ignoring his request and focusing on figuring out her cell phone instead.

He sighed. "Why don't you just read the manual?"

She scoffed. "Because reading creates idiots named Jonathan, duh."

He glared at her, placed her legs down, got up, retrieved the manual, and sat back down again. "Come on, I'll help…."

* * *

**Year 2010**

_Alex Russo groaned in her sleep when she felt something heavy rest on her back and shake her. She rolled over to the other side, hoping it would go away, but it returned again, growing more persistent. She whimpered, shaking her head. She could hear a faint "Alex, it's morning, wake up…" Her head snapped up and her eyes shot open when she realized she was sleeping. She blinked, trying to comprehend where exactly she was at that moment. When her vision focused, she could see that she was in the old Russo room. The messy room and the loud pink fur wallpaper were smiling at her. Turning on her back, she covered her eyes with her hand and tried to rub the sleep out of her system. When she removed her hands and opened her eyes again, she could see an angry Justin looking at that, arms crossed over his chest. "What?" she huffed out, yawning. _

"_I've been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes!" he snapped, pointing to the watch on his wrist even though he knew he couldn't read the time flashing there. "I'm hungry! I need breakfast! Come on, sleeping beauty! Your prince is here, so get your ass out of the bed now!"_

_She scrunched her nose at the sappiness of his words and the reference to an old fairytale, but grinned when she had an idea. "You know, the prince had to kiss her to wake her up…" _

_He smirked. Two can play a game. "I thought you said I'm such a lousy kisser I make girls fall asleep?"_

_She glared up, then closed her eyes, deciding to go back to sleep and keep him starving. _

"_Alex!" he snapped desperately, grabbing her arm and forcing her up and out of the bed. "Go brush your teeth." He ordered, pushing on her shoulders and shoving her into the bathroom, pouring the toothpaste on her old brush, filling the glass with water, and handing them over to her, stepping aside and waiting for her to finish. He stared at her image at the mirror, admiring everything about her. Grumpy as she was, the freshness and energy showed in her face. "Why do you want to sleep so much?" he asked curiously. _

_She shrugged, washing her face, enjoying the cold water splash over her face. "I was just having a great dream about us…"_

_He smiled at that, nodding her head. He wanted to ask for details, but he knew she would have mentioned it if she wanted to share it with him. _

"_Don't you ever dream about me?" she asked inquisitively, walking back to her room to change her clothes. _

_He followed, a blush on his face as he thought over her question. It deepened when she took her pajama top off to slip on a new t-shirt. "Well, yeah, I do, but… um, those dreams aren't exactly innocent." He admitted, looking down at the floor. _

_She arched up an eyebrow at him, studying him below the belt. "Really?"_

"_Alex…" he warned, seeing her gaze and catching on to her thoughts. _

_She rolled her eyes, pacing up to him and pushing him down on her bed. "Loosen up a bit, Justin. Mom and dad are downstairs."_

_He swallowed, shaking his head weakly. He knew that'd be useless. Oh well, an empty stomach is way better than an angry Alex, and making out with her is much better than breakfast sandwiches! _

* * *

**Year 2025**

Alex blinked, slowly opening her eyes and trying to comprehend where she was. She knew it wasn't her room. After a while, she realized that she was in her old Russo room. For the first time since she returned here, she looked at her room properly. It was hard to believe this was her room. She had shifted her belongings long time back, and Amelia had taken down the wallpaper for her own room. Her mother has changed the curtains and the bed-sheets, and now an old dresser was in front of her bed. Everything was so different, yet, memories screamed at her from every corner of the room. She felt like she could spread her palm out and catch them in her hands, hold the moments forever. But knowing her fate, she knew it'd slip away. Running her hands over the bed sheet she could felt Justin and herself from years back, molded together in that bed…

Sighing and deciding that she wasn't going to pay so much attention to these feelings of defeat right at the beginning of a new day, she got up from the bed and opened the door to her bedroom. And of course Justin was passing by just at that very moment. Since when did she not get what she wanted the least at that moment?

He stiffened and froze on his way when he heard her door open, turned around and looked at her awkwardly, forcing a smile on his face. "Hey…" his eyes involuntarily drifted to her room for a second, and he saw a glimpse of them together in the past. His smile became genuine when he saw a long-forgotten Alex cuddled with a long-forgotten Justin.

She offered him a weak smile. "Hey…. Good morning."

He nodded. "I don't think the morning's so good… Emmy's not up yet and she's already got Nathan's comb glued to his hair."

She let out a small laugh at that, shaking her head. "Thank goodness for magic! A bald Nathan would be…." she trailed off, visualizing that.

He let out a chuckle, nodded and started to walk away.

"Justin…" she blurted out before she could stop herself, her foot involuntarily taking a step forward.

He paused on his way, but did not dare to turn back at her. "Huh?" he asked, trying his best to sound normal, even though he knew that she knew he wasn't.

She bit her lip. She knew she wanted to say something, but she couldn't say anything. If she opened her mouth, incoherent confessions would escape her lips and destroy everything. She looked away. "Nothing…"

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He wanted to turn around and tell her that it was alright to speak, but he knew better than that. Walking away quietly was the wisest move at that moment.

"Justin…" she called out again, this time sure of what she wanted to do. She reached up with her hand and grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop.

He felt his skin burn at the contact. He breathed in deeply, and turned around to face her. "Yeah?"

She opened her mouth, closed it again, bit on her tongue, looked into his eyes, looked away, crossed her arms, fidgeted with her fingers, ran her hands through her hair. He could _clearly _see the conflict going on inside her. He wished he could make it go away.

"I'm sorry." She finally managed to speak. "I know we had options and I-"

He shook his head firmly, cutting her off. "No. It wasn't your fault. You made the right choice, Alex." he reassured, smiling at her.

"Do you ever regret it?" she wondered out, her voice small and timid, like she was thousand miles away from him. The distance they had built between themselves must have been so great.

He wanted to lie _so bad, _to tell her that he never regretted her decision, but he knew this could be his one chance, and he didn't need another addition to his 'I want to redo this moment' list. He let out a sad chuckle. "Every single second." His eyes shone with emotions that he told himself he had left back long ago. He looked at her with a sad smile on his face. "You?"

She took a step back. "No, no, Justin." She closed her eyes and shook her head firmly, now talking solely to herself. "This can't happen again, we can't go back, not now, not after so many years of hard work. It'll destroy everything. Em and Nathan…. No, we can't, we-"

She opened her eyes once more, only to see that he was already gone. Was this just her imagination then? She secretly hoped it was, because if this _did_ happen, facing him again would be so _damn _awkward.

* * *

**Chapter title: Learn by Lesson by Daughtry **

* * *

**A/N: today I was feeling as angst-y as I used to feel around a year back, you know, when I first started writing. I hope you liked this chapter, it took a lot of hard work. Reviews are awesome :D **

**edited 27 Jan, 2011: some spelling/errors fixed  
**


	4. Ch 3: How do you get here under my skin?

**Chapter 3: How do you get here under my skin? **

**Year 2025**

She had to face him just after fifteen minutes, at the breakfast table. She sat down at a seat as far away from him as possible, beside a terrified and sulking Jonathan. "You alright?" she asked softly.

Jonathan swallowed hard and nodded his head. "I'm fine…. As of now."

She shook her head, looking everywhere but at Justin. Noticing her daughter wasn't around, she sighed. "AMY!" she shouted at the top of her voice. "Get down here now!"

Justin let out a chuckle. "Ten dollars, she is using a sound-proofing spell." He challenged, smirking at her.

She blinked. Justin was talking to her…. normally? Like nothing happened? Like they didn't have the conversation a few minutes back? Was he really that great of an actor- could he really pretend to himself so much? Or was she actually hallucinating? Now she was truly confused.

It took her a while to recompose herself. Finally, she grinned back at him. "You just lost ten dollars, Justin. Amy doesn't know the soundproof spell."

Justin clicked his tongue, shaking his head like he was talking to a little child. "I'm her teacher Alex, I know better than you. She knows that spell. I taught her that two days back."

Alex scoffed. "Yeah, like she actually pays attention in your classes. If she did, she wouldn't have accidentally turned me into a brick."

Justin let out another chuckle, making Alex clench her fists in annoyance. It was good to see that he still had that effect on her, after everything. "I chose to believe she did it on purpose so that she could get out of grounding and watch TV. Oops."

Max finally disconnected from his sandwich and paid attention to what his siblings were saying. Just like old times, he let out his typical "ooohhh" when Justin got one over Alex.

Alex crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Justin. "How come you know all these but you didn't tell me?"

When Max let out another "ohhhh", the glare shifted to him.

Justin titled his head to the side, like he was studying her, like the answer was written in her face. She was pretty sure that the only thing written in her face was happiness and relief that they could still talk to each other comfortably. He smiled sweetly at her, his expression mirroring hers. "I thought you had a brain to figure it out yourself."

Before Max could stop himself, he let out an "ouch."

"That's it." Alex slammed her hands over the table, got up and grabbed two glasses of water. Pouring one glass over the head of a stunned Max, she laughed out loudly, pointing her finger at him and went upstairs happily to wake Amelia up.

Justin sighed, flinching and yelling a "dude" when Max wiped his head on his shirt. Jonathan watched, shocked to see that these adults could also behave like kids. After a while, he heard Amelia shriek, and a smile crept on his face. His eyes automatically drifted to the stairs when he heard footsteps, and the smile turned into a wide grin when he saw Amelia coming down. He would never admit it, but that was how happy she made him feel.

"Where's my ten dollars, Alex?" Justin hummed, when he heard Alex coming down.

"Here", Alex smiled sweetly, quickly grabbing another glass of water and pouring it all over his head.

He closed his eyes and pursed his lips tightly, feeling the water drain down his face, and listening to the sound of her laughter ringing in his ears. If that could make her happy for a while, he didn't care if he caught a cold. And if this could make their relation normal again, if this could bring them closer and clear the awkwardness, he was willing to take this.

Just when he opened his eyes to yell at her, he saw her splash Jonathan with water as well.

"Alex!" Jonathan yelled, jumping up in shock at her sudden action. "What was that for?"

Alex shrugged, sitting back down on the table and throwing the water from her glass on the floor, before anyone could tale revenge- classic Alex style. She looked at Jonathan, smiling sweetly. "I thought you were feeling left out." She burst out into laughter again when she looked at the displeased expression in everyone's faces, panting and holding her stomach with her hands.

* * *

**Year 2010**

_Alex looked at herself in the mirror, staring at her rapidly growing belly, as she talked to her mother on the phone. "No, mom, I'm not in trouble. I'm just really busy with studies, okay... yes, you have to believe that! Mom!... I'll go home as soon as I can; I promise…I'll talk to you later, bye." _

_She hung up, sighed, and ran a hand over her belly softly. She hadn't been home ever since her sign of pregnancy was starting to show, and she couldn't be home until this was over. She missed her mother a lot, but well, this was the best plan. _

"_I'm sorry", Justin whispered in her ears, wrapping his arms around her from behind, and rubbing her belly. "I promise you it'll be alright."_

_She sighed again, shaking her head. "I don't want you to take all the blame, Justin…" _

"_Hey, hey, hey, look at me," he commanded, making her lift her face and look at him at the mirror. He smiled at her, his eyes reassuring. "It'll be alright. I'm their perfect boy; I won't get into so much trouble."_

"_But what if they ask you about the mother? What if they-"_

"_Alex-" he interrupted, rubbing her shoulders to calm her down. "Let's review this again. I am going to tell mom and dad that a girl I dated turned up one day and left our child with me. She wants nothing to do with us. Blah blah blah-"_

"_-This blah blah blah is where you'll get into trouble Justin!" she snapped, breaking away from him, and walking up to the bed. "As usual, I have a way better idea than yours. We'll tell them that the baby was left at your doorstep, with a letter that said it was yours."_

_Justin bit on his lip. "Alex that's low. I don't think we should-"_

"_-I know!" she snapped again, getting agitated. "I don't like this either, but this story is more believable! AND it doesn't leave room for questions and blah blahs." She made a face, scowling at him. _

"_It does. What if they ask how I'm sure he's my son?" He challenged. _

_She let out a sad laugh. "Justin, he's our child. He will look like a Russo." _

_He looked down at the ground sadly, his chest feeling heavy with all the cheap lies they would have to tell for one cheap mistake. _

* * *

**Year 2025**

Theresa nearly dropped the plates when she saw that everyone- expect Alex- was wet. "Alex, what did you do?"

Alex scoffed, blatantly stealing food from Justin's plate. "What does it look like, mom?"

Theresa sighed sadly. "I thought you grew up. I guess that's never possible"

Alex only smiled. She did grow up a lot with all the tough choices she had to make. She did become a mature, responsible adult. But having Justin around always made her loosen up. It made her feel like she was sixteen again.

"So what are we doing today?" Jonathan asked casually, his spirits lifted up remarkably ever since Amelia woke up. He had been trying to find an explanation for this, but hadn't been succeeding so far.

"See a movie?" Amelia suggested.

"So that you get more ideas on how to mess with me?" Jonathan asked, narrowing his eyes angrily. "And you can watch a movie _anywhere_."

Amelia held up her hands in the air. "I want to watch a movie in _New York_."

"New York has a lot of places for seeing." Jonathan protested. "Like the statue of Liberty-"

"-Yeah, well, I don't want to feel like a tourist." Amelia dismissed with a wave of her hand.

"Hey, here's an interesting thing to do…. How about you cover the shifts at the sub-shop?" Jerry offered enthusiastically. When he saw all faces turn to him and glare, he added, "It'll be a job."

"You mean you'll pay me money?" Amelia asked bluntly, earning a hiss from Justin. "Fine, we'll do it."

Alex let out a long sigh, shaking her head. "I'll just loosen up in front of the couch then."

"No way." Justin declared firmly. "I'm going to watch the games. Dad!"

"_Daddy_. _Help me_." Alex mocked, rolling her eyes and kicking his feet under the table by instinct. "You're such a kid."

* * *

**Year 2010**

"_He's going to be a great kid." Justin mused, staring at his new born resting on Alex's lap. He ran a hand over his head, smiling when he saw how peacefully he was sleeping, unaware of everything going on. _

_She wiped a tear from her eyes, looking away from her little boy. The longer she looked at him, the more she grew attached, and the more it broke her heart. "I… I don't want to give him up, Justin." _

"_Alex", he took her hand in his, squeezing it gently, "you know we can't raise a child in a dorm! He needs a home. And we don't have a job yet. We'll have to hand him over to mom and dad till I graduate."_

_She yanked her hand out of his. "But he's my son, I want to-"_

"_-If anyone finds out we'll be sent to jail and he'll be taken into care." He reminded her, rubbing his forehead with his hands in frustration. "Look, I don't want to do this either. I don't really care what happens to me… but I don't want to lose you Alex. And I don't want to lose him…" _

_She bit her lip, looking at the child from the corner of her eye. "He'll be okay with mom and dad, right?"_

_He nodded, smiling at her tenderly. "Of course. They brought up three kids. They brought you and Max up, they can do anything." _

_She laughed at that for a moment, nodding her head. She could still visit her son anytime she wanted. She would still be able to live with him once she graduated and moved in with Justin. And they would tell him who his mother was after a while. It was the perfect plan. What could possibly go wrong?_

_

* * *

_

**Year 2025**

"This is so wrong!" Justin complained, as Alex watched people wiping out and laughed out loudly just to annoy him. "Come on, Alex! You can watch the re-runs later! I need to watch the game live! Give me the remote!"

Alex pouted at him sweetly. "But this is a game too, and I want to watch it live."

"It's not live, it's-" he began to protest, but somewhere in the middle of it, he forget how to speak when his eyes landed on Alex's puckered lips. His vision focused on that and everything else blurred out. He couldn't look away. He just couldn't.

She swallowed hard when she noticed his gaze. She bit her lip, winced when she saw his breath deepen at that, sat up and cleared her throat. "Ummm, I… I need to call my neighbor and see how my dog's doing." She blurted out, running away as fast as humanly possible.

He slammed his head on the arm of the couch. The normal-act was gone again. The feeling were back- they never really left anyway- the awkwardness was back, and here they go again. He just ruined everything.

* * *

"You are ruining everything!" Jonathan yelled in exasperation when Amelia broke the second plate in one hour.

"Geez, it's just a plate. It's not the end of the world, dork." She snarled, carefully stepping over the broken pieces. Looking around and seeing that no one was staring, she reached to her boot to take out her wand.

"Em!" Jonathan yelled again, stopping her and pulling her to the kitchen. "_What are you doing_?"

She rolled her eyes. "I was just trying to clean the mess, duh."

"You were going to use magic in front of the whole sub-shop." He accused, pointing his finger at her distastefully. "You know you're not supposed to do that."

"Sue me." she held her hands up and made a gesture of a gun firing bullets in the air.

"Amy!" he yelled again, grabbing her arm and stopping her from leaving. "Do you see me using magic to do things? Do you see dad using magic irresponsibly?"

"Do you make your living by selling those big words?" she insulted, easily overpowering him and breaking away. "Why don't you just clean the broken pieces instead of wasting my time?"

He stood at the kitchen, staring at her in disbelief. "I have been covering your shift! I've been taking your orders! I cleaned the last dish you broke! What did you do beside cause trouble? Amy? Amy! AMY!"

**

* * *

Chapter title from "here we go again" by my #1 Demi Lovato **

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**A/N: well, Baku Babe said the last chapter was vague, so I added in as much explanation as possible here. Hope you all liked it. I missed my fav anime to write this :P Please review :) oh, and I know nobody asked, but today I learnt how to make karaoke, yay! :D**


	5. Ch 4: I don't even know your fragrance

**Chapter 4: ****I don't even know your fragrance**

**Year 2010

* * *

**

_He ran as fast as he could and opened the door of her dorm room with a bang. "Alex…" he trailed off, staring at her. Lying on her bed staring at the ceiling, her hair was loose and uncombed, her eyes red, swollen, lips trembling, tear trails all over her cheeks and neck, her dress random and unsorted, much unlike the hippie clothes she usually wore. She was clearly breaking down. "Alex…" he sighed, locking the door behind him and walking up to her. He sat down next to her, and wiped her tears away. "You know I'm feeling the same way…"_

"_I'm the one who carried him for nine months, Justin." She snarled, her voice dry and tearful, her gaze burning with fiery rage. "You didn't."_

_He closed his eyes and swallowed hard at that. "I… I didn't mean to take your son away from you… You know he's in a safe place now."_

"_I wanted to raise him!" she snapped, gripping his hand tightly and glaring at him. "I want to be there for him. I want to see him grow up. I've been thinking," she paused, cleared her throat, and looked at him hesitantly. He was an important part of her life now, his opinions matter, and she wanted to discuss her decisions with him. "I… I wanna drop out of college and look after him… Justin?"_

_He didn't even know how to answer that. He figured she'd want to do something like that, and honestly, he didn't mind, even though it meant she'd be giving up her dreams and career. Maybe that was how motherhood worked- everything else came behind the love for one's child? _

_He sighed again, nodding at her, and crawling into bed with her. She hugged him tightly, grateful that he supported her decision. He hugged her back, squeezing her hand to let her know he was always there for her. "We weren't ready for a child, were we?"_

_She chuckled at that sadly. "We would never have been ready…I-" she turned her head, looking at him, "I don't have any regrets anymore, Justin. Jonathan is awesome." _

_His eyes lit up when she mentioned their child. "You went home yesterday?"_

"_Yep." She smiled brightly, the pain in her eyes vanishing almost magically, and began rambling with a sense of pride in her heart. "He looks so tiny for a one month old kid! Mom had him wrapped in your baby blankets. He looked so cute in those!... And those little socks! I wanted to wear that on my finger, it was so cute! But you know what the best part is? He feels a bond with me! He kept sleeping the whole time I was there, but he opened his eyes and started crying when I was about to leave. I…" her voice broke at that again, her smile faded. "I had to leave. I wanted to take him into my lap and cuddle him till he stopped crying, but m-mom said I'd hurt him and you'd be mad. I know I'm terrible with kids, but…" the tears escaped her eyes again. It hurt her to even say it. "I left him, Justin. I left him crying." _

"_Hey, hey, hey?" he tangled his hands in her hair and placed a sweet kiss at the top of her head. "Every mom has been there sometime. I remember mom leaving Max crying when you fell from the bed and started… crying… Okay, I'm not helping. But maybe this will help?" He asked, placing a soft kiss on her lips, and felt her respond to it immediately. _

_And that was how they ended up making another huge mistake. _

* * *

**Year 2025**

"Hey", Jonathan stumbled back, almost shocked to see Amelia sitting at the terrace, staring at the skies- something he expected least from her. "I am so bored! I have been looking everywhere for you... What are you doing out _here_?"

She didn't look at him at all. She just patted the chair next to her, motioning him to sit down. "I like the view here. It's peaceful."

He bit his lip. Something was definitely wrong with her. He could tell from the glint in her eyes, the glint of anger and hatred. He wondered if he should run away and save himself or stay and be there for her. He didn't even need to think to know what he wanted to do. He sat down quietly.

She kept staring at the sky, completely ignoring his existence. She wasn't even looking; she just kept thinking and thinking. Finally, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Mom said he lives somewhere in New York."

He bit his lip again. Was she talking about one of the stupid guys she had a crush on? Or was it someone she had gotten into trouble with because of her pranks? "Who?" he asked, utterly confused.

"The guy who destroyed my mom's life." she replied coldly, her voice mechanical, like she was reading the words off a paper, but her hand clenched tightly into a fist.

He cringed when he understood what she meant. "Oh. Your dad." He cringed again when he said that, waiting for her to slap him till he cried, but she didn't react at all, like she didn't even hear him. He sighed. This was worse than he thought. "My mom's from New York too."

"How can you call her your mom?" she snapped at him, annoyed, "That skank left you at your father's door. What if he didn't open the door and find you? What if someone else had- gosh, I don't even want to think about it. I don't know _how_ in hell that monster could actually _do_ it."

His eyes glimmered with tears and raw emotions, but he fought them back. "Hey, watch your tongue. It's my m-mom you are talking about."

She stared at him like he was crazy, and then she was quiet again, her eyes unfocused as she kept looking at a random building peaking its head into the New York sky and then another, like she was studying everything and constructing a map in her head. "Do you ever wanna meet _your mom_?" she asked, using air quotes around the words, still angry.

He thought for a while, considering his chances of ever actually knowing who his mother was, and wondering if he wanted to know that. "No", he finally replied, shaking his head. "I mean, what's the use anyway? She's probably out there living a great life. I don't want to destroy that. Whether I like it or not, she's my mom. She gave birth to me, and I'm grateful for that… Plus, it's better she's out of our lives anyway. She would have only caused pain to my dad. Dad went through so much trouble to raise me. I know he'd be disappointed if I want to meet my mom. I don't want to hurt him."

"Right." She nodded slowly, still in a trance-like state.

"What about you?" he asked softly, "Do you want to meet… him?"

"Of course!" Her answer was immediate, but not spontaneous, like she had already thought over it and made up her mind. Finally turning her head, she looked straight into his eyes. He felt a shiver run down his spine when he saw the deadly fire burning in her orbs. "I want to ask him why exactly he played with my mom. I want to show him that we are doing great without him and we don't need him. I want him to know how much my mom still loves him, and what he lost out." Her voice rose in pitch, and words began to form in her head at such a great speed and with such strong emotions that sometimes they got jumbled in her tongue. "I want to make him _miserable_. I want to see him cry and beg. I want to _destroy_ him. And-and I want to tell the whole world what a great bastard he is. I want to see him broke and living in the streets with no one to go to and nothing to eat and fucking begging for food and clothes and when it's cold and snowing in winter I want to-"

"Amelia!" Jonathan interrupted, shaking her shoulders harshly. "Calm down." He pleaded softly, rubbing her shoulders and her neck. "It's alright. You've let your emotions out. You need to-" he stopped when she jumped into his arms crying.

Something ruffled in his chest. He felt like the pain was transferred to his mind- he felt horrible when he felt her tears run down his shoulders, like it was burning his heart. He closed his eyes and stroked her hair, letting her cry it out.

"I wanted a father." She whispered, sniffling. "When I see the girls at my school who have dads…. I feel so horrible. I…. I feel so lonely….I'm so…" her voice gave way and all she could do was cry. Sob. Sob. Sob. She felt like her tears would never dry out. Having Jonathan around helped soothe her though, and after a while, she was able to recompose herself and speak again. "I'm freaking out. Mom just won't date anyone and I…. I don't want her to be alone. Sometimes she comes home from work and is all… exhausted. I want her to talk to me about her problems, but… she just keeps up her damn smile for me. I hate it when she does that. I wish she'd-"

Her eyes widened and she stopped talking when she felt a heavier hand rest on her back. Turning around in terror, she was even more horrified to see it was her uncle. She was into _so much_ trouble if he had heard everything she said. "Justin? H-how long have you been here?"

"I was just walking by" he answered, looking at her worriedly when he saw the dried tear stains and felt a sharp stinging in his heart. "Are you alright?" he asked, gently petting her head. His daughter was crying, and he didn't even know what to do to make her feel better. What kind of useless father was he? He felt like such a waste of life.

She shrugged weakly. "Yeah, I guess."

He wanted to push, but he wasn't sure if that would be pushing too far. So he decided to leave and just let Jonathan handle the situation. From what he had seen, she did open up to him. "Okay then, if you ever need me, you know I'm always there." He smiled weakly, ruffled her hair, and walked out.

"Uncle Justin!" she called out just when he was about to go out of sight. He turned around, looking a bit shocked at her unexpected call.

"Did mom tell you anything about my"- she bit on her tongue to get the word out without sounding too resentful. "Father?" she managed to say calmly, but her face contorted like she tasted something bad.

He felt like he had just been stabbed in the chest or slapped in the face when he saw the hateful expression in her eyes. He froze where he had been standing, wide-eyed, out of breath. His daughter just asked him about her father. How was he going to answer that? Every cell of his body was screaming at him to tell her the truth, to explain everything, apologize and make things better again. But there was the fear too- what if she hated him even more when she learnt her father was actually her uncle?

She took his silence as a no. "I didn't think so." She sighed, looking at Jonathan. "Can we please go somewhere? I don't feel so good right now."

"Sure." Jonathan agreed, without even asking his father for permission- something he always did when he was in a new city. Justin raised an eyebrow at this, but ignored it. It was actually good to see the two of them getting along for a change; he didn't want to ruin anything by asking unnecessary questions.

"Have fun." Justin said cheerfully, before they walked away.

And now here he was alone, with his thoughts. Why did she suddenly ask about her father? Was she trying to find him? Did she want to know about him? Or was she just curious? Did she feel like this all the time? Or did something cause her to break down? Did someone mess with her? Was something wrong?

He frowned, getting more worried as he thought about all the possibilities. He knew he had to talk to Alex. And he knew just where he'd find her.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter title from the English version of "Cyclone" by 12012. **

**

* * *

A/N: hope you liked this chapter. I felt it was necessary to show how the kids felt about their unknown parent… Next chapter will be FULL jalex interaction. Who's excited? Review up for faster update! I NEED to stay off facebook for a while, and writing is helping a LOT :D **


	6. Ch 5: Holding on with both hands

**Note: The flashbacks are from different scenes, but I have pasted them between the same scene in 2025. **

**Chapter 5: As long as I can, I'm holding on with both hands

* * *

**

**Year 2010 **

_He laughed, staring at her in amusement, waiting for her to break down into laughter or reveal a camera with a picture of the stunned expression earlier on his face. When that didn't happen, his smile faded into a tight pursing of lips. "You're joking, right Alex?" _

_She really wished she was, but she wasn't. She looked away from him, letting her silence speak volumes. _

"_You can't be serious!" he snapped, wide-eyed, like he had heard something completely impossible, like she just said magic didn't exist, and vampires weren't real. _

_She didn't even bother to reply, and she didn't even bother so see his further reaction. She just left the room, slamming the door in his face. _

_He stared at the door, the sound of the slamming echoing through his veins as he swallowed hard. "Oh my gosh, I am going to be a father again!"  
_

**

* * *

Year 2025**

It was only when he went out into the streets of New York that he realized how long he had stayed away from his favorite place in the world- his home town. The place hadn't changed too much, yet it had changed so much that he couldn't help but pinpoint every new thing he saw. His eyes became wet with tears when he noticed that one of his favorite comic book stores was turned into a restaurant- it used to be his favorite place to take Alex on a date when she was messing with his stuff. It hurt even more to see that their favorite pizza parlor had been shifted somewhere else, and the place where they once had so many memorable dates was now a boring, dull office of something- he didn't care enough to find out more. He was pleasantly surprised to see that her favorite art equipment store was still intact, and the lady, though older now, was alive and still working there. He wondered if she came here yet, but he figured she wouldn't- the place carried too many memories for them, and she wasn't strong enough to face them again. He wasn't either, he couldn't deal with hallucinating about him and Alex everywhere, he had to walk away quietly. He knew that as long as he was breathing, he'd keep holding onto his memories, keeping them locked safely in his heart.

As he kept walking, as he kept remembering little big things, and as he realized how everything in his city revolved around Alex in some way or the other, he looked up at the sky to gape at the tallest building. He _knew _she'd be there at the terrace; she always came there in the rare times when she needed alone time to think. He gulped when he realized that he was just a little while away from her. All he had to do was wait in line, and then he'd be right next to her.

**

* * *

Year 2011**

"_You got knocked up at a party?" Theresa howled in disbelief, staring at Alex with eyes that betrayed the disappointment in her heart. _

_She kept quiet, chewing her bottom lip between her teeth and looking down at the ground. She wasn't very proud of letting her parents down. _

"_Do you even know who the father is?" Theresa asked, her voice broken with ultimate frustration. All her life, her daughter just made wrong choices and did wrong things, but they were never harmful, they never hurt anyone. This? This was the worst thing she could have done. _

_She glanced at her father from the corner of her eye. He was sitting on a chair, with his head resting on the table. He looked so broken too, she was sure he wouldn't he able to take more. _

_The plan was to say 'no', but when she looked into her parents' eyes, she just couldn't. "Yeah…I know him."_

"_Who is he?" Theresa demanded, her voice almost threatening. _

_She knew she couldn't answer that, and she knew she wouldn't lie. So she did the only thing she could. "I love him, he doesn't love me back."_

"_Who is he?" Theresa repeated, her voice growing lower, almost into a soft growl. _

_The tears in her eyes finally left. "He used me…" she bit her lip, feeling disgusted of the lie she was saying. She wanted to back up a little bit and say something else, but she didn't know what else to say. All she knew was that she had to stop her mother from wanting her to marry this guy. At any cost. "He just threw me away after we… I…do you want me to be with him, mom?"_

"_Oh, hija!" Theresa finally sighed, pulling her daughter into a comforting hug. "It's going to be okay. You're not alone, we're all with you."_

_She broke down completely in her mother's arms. "I'm so sorry mom, I didn't.…"_

"_Shhhh…" Jerry patted her head, finally joining them, and finally saying something. "It's okay… everyone makes mistakes…You're our baby girl. You know we love you no matter what." _

_When she looked at the door, she wasn't too surprised to see him still standing there, looking at her from a distance with a pained expression on his face. She knew she wouldn't be too far when she was in such a serious situation, she knew he'd be around to make sure she was alright._

_Her eyes flickered with doubts and uncertainty, and she stared at him, asking him silent questions. He offered her the weakest possible smile, and tilted his head into a nod. She sighed in relief- she knew she did the right thing._

_

* * *

_

**Year 2025**

He knew he'd find her standing near the railings and staring at the city blankly. And he knew he wouldn't even mind talking to her with such little privacy. In a big city like theirs, surrounded by strangers, they were basically alone. "I thought I'd find you here." he mumbled, standing beside her.

The look on her face told him she was expecting to see him there. A part of him chose to believe she wanted him to be there. Another part, of course, held him back and kept reminding him of the choice he offered her long back, a choice she accepted.

She wasn't sure what she should say. The silence was uncomfortable, but everything that came to her mind were retorts or flirty words, and she would kill herself if any of them slipped through her lips. "The city's changed so much." She mused, pointing to the lights at a certain direction. "I don't remember those. Do you, Justin?"

He followed her hand, and shook his head. "No. I… places change, Alex. Everything does." Everything except feelings, he added in his mind. And he was glad that one thing never changed.

She was silent again, just looking at the lights and glancing at Justin's face for the tiniest seconds. "It's been such a long time since we came here last…"

"Our Wizard competition." He recalled, shaking his head at the memory. He smirked at her, nudging her with his elbow. "Told you I'd beat you." He teased.

She huffed, raising an eyebrow at him. "Excuse me? You won because I went easy on you. I let my feelings for you come between us." She bit her lip when she realized what she said, looking up at him uneasily. She had to correct it at once. "And I couldn't cheat because Max kept splashing me with mud."

He laughed at that, shaking his head again. "Isn't he just the best brother ever?"

She rolled her eyes, staring into space again. For a moment, she traveled back to her older family days; those were simple days full of happiness. And now... Just the thought gave her shudders. She was always glad that memories played in her head too fast and she didn't have to watch one image for too long.

She looked at Justin again, this time, moving closer and latching onto his hand. "I don't know what will happen when the kids would have to compete..."

He inhaled sharply with her touch, but was able to recover and process what she said. He looked at her with worried eyes. "That's not our biggest problem right now…. I actually came here to talk about Em."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed when she realized he didn't come there for her, but quickly furrowed her eyebrows in concern. "What about her?"

"I over-heard her talking to Jonathan." He paused, giving her time to prepare herself, and holding her hand tightly to offer her the support she needed. "I think she has questions about her father. I'm pretty sure she hates him. And I think she's worried about you being all alone."

She groaned in frustration. "I told her enough about her father. I told her he's from New York and he's a total dork, a bookworm, a kiss-up, a show-off with a know-it-all attitude-"

"-Wow, it's nice to know you speak so highly about me." he retorted.

She shot him a glare. "-And a total jerk at times. What else am I supposed to say? I can't just make up stuff like this! I can't lie to my daughter!"

He sighed in defeat. "I guess we didn't pick great stories."

"We picked the _worst_ possible stories." She snarled, whining along with it. "When we made that up, we just thought about us… and mom and dad. We didn't think how the kids would feel about it, and now….. I know we made each other look like villains. I don't know what to do."

He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Want me to talk to her?" he asked softly, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

"That would be great, thanks." She smiled at him gratefully. She wondered how he always knew what to say and what to do to make everything alright. When he was around, she didn't have to worry about anything. "Just tell her good things about her father. You know I can't do that", she laughed at that, shooting him a teasing smile like the younger Alex would, "Just let her know her father loves her."

He smiled back at her, losing himself for a moment because of how beautiful she looked in the light of the city and with the gentle breeze blowing her hair, but recuperated immediately. "I think I'd begin with how he picked the perfect name for her."

* * *

**Year 2011**

"_Nope. Nope. Nope." She scratched off the names on the list he had prepared, not liking any of them. "Justin, come on, this is our little girl we're talking about! We need the best possible name! I've been stuck my whole life with Alex. Gigi says it's a guy's name-"_

"_-Grow up, Gigi's jealous." He snapped. "Alex is totally a girl name. Alexandra is perfect." _

_She rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever. I don't want my daughter-" _

"_-Our daughter", he corrected. _

_She shot him a glare that told him he'd be as good as dead if he didn't shut up. "-to be laughed at. Just use your damn brain and come up with something!"_

"_Why don't you come up with something then?" he challenged._

_She held her hands up in the air. "I told you what I want. Look at her Justin, she's an Emily!"_

"_Emily is way over-used!" he protested. _

"_It is AWESOME!" she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly. _

_He took in a deep breath to calm himself. "What about Amelia? It's a nice variation from Emily. And you can nickname her Em or Amy."_

_She scoffed. "Amelia sounds… old."_

_He glared at her. "It's a beautiful name. I mean, look at her, Alex. She's a Amelia."_

_She looked at her daughter, biting her lip. Finally, she sighed, giving in. "Fine, I guess I can live with her hating you forever for naming her out of some 1000 B.C. novel." _

"_Alex, this is not correct. Writing wasn't invented in-"_

"_-La la la la la." _

"_Were you ever in a history class? Novels came around-"_

"_JUSTIN!" _

"_Ow!_ _Hey, stop hitting ME with MY pillow!"_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter title from "Never gonna be alone" by Nickelback.

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**

**A/N: thanks for all the kind words guys :) I hope you liked this chapter. The building I mentioned is the Empire State Building, BTW. Please review and let me know what you think about this chapter. Oh, and did I mention I'm not done with the Justin-Alex scene yet? :D Next chapter is ALSO jalex.  
**


	7. Ch 6: I'll be over you someday, not yet

**Chapter 6: I'll be over you someday, but not yet…**

**Year 2025

* * *

**

He smiled back at her, losing himself for a moment because of how beautiful she looked in the light of the city and with the gentle breeze blowing her hair, but recuperated immediately. "I think I'd begin with how he picked the perfect name for her."

She shrugged, for a moment just staring at him and losing herself in thoughts and memories. She traveled back to her childhood and teenage days, when they used to come here very often. She remembered fighting with him and taunting him all the way from home. And she remembered all the amazing dates they had at this place. Back then, she called him all sorts of names for being so cliché and romantic, but secretly enjoyed every bit of it, and now, when she looked back, her heart swelled with a sense of warmth.

After a few minutes of thinking, she found herself feeling empty and vulnerable at the realization that those days were gone forever, they were never coming back. She shook her head and snapped out of it, and reluctantly pulled her hand away from his. She glanced at the night sky, at the people around her, then at her wrist watch, and finally looked at him. "It's getting late…. Maybe we should go home."

He shook his head. "Not yet… Relax, you won't get lost in your own city."

"Well I don't live here anymore." she pointed out and glanced down at the ground below. "It's such a long way down" She looked at him, a mischievous glint dancing dangerously in her eyes. "Remember I promised to shove you down from here?"

He shrugged innocently, playing along. "You're welcome to go ahead. Just remember, if I get murdered, you'll automatically be the first suspect."

She smacked his shoulder playfully, raised an eyebrow when she realized he was strong enough to withstand the blow, and smirked at him. "You _do _work out. Amy was right." She frowned when she thought of her daughter, once again feeling worried and stressed. "I can't believe I never noticed she was mad at her father…" she rubbed her temples with her hands, groaning. "I really don't know what to do."

He bit his lip and closed his eyes, dreading the words that were hammering at his lips and trying to slip out. "Maybe you should move in with me…."

Her head snapped up at him. Did he just ask her to move in with him? She shook her head, laughing nervously. She was sure she had heard it wrong. "W-What did you just say?"

He licked his lips nervously. "I said you could move in with me", he repeated, slowly yet firmly, letting her know he meant it, and it wasn't just some impulse words that came out of his lips. "Amelia can have a father."

She shook her head sadly. "No, Justin you know we can't. We almost got caught last time and…. It's too risky. I'm sorry. I just…. I care about our kids too much. I can't let anything happen to me or you now."

He nodded his head, feeling dejected, and looking down at the ground. "That's okay, I understand. And I agree with you."

She nodded back, looking away from him. The mood of their conversation had suddenly changed, their thoughts suddenly shifting to everything that went wrong twelve years back. She started painting pictures of "what if"s; trying to visualize what it would have been like if she was living with Justin. She got lost in images of red walls with paintings and wall hangings and marble floors with clothes bundled everywhere, dinner dates and movies, cooking together, feeding each other, fighting, shouting, stomping her feet, shoving him hard…. Justin, Justin, Justin. Maybe they'd have had a little home somewhere? Maybe she'd have had a perfect kitchen where he would cook for her, a perfect bedroom that he would keep neat and clean, a perfect living room where she could sit around all day and watch TV. Maybe the kids would have bothered their father the whole day and fought with each other, breaking his action figures and robots in the process. Maybe she wouldn't have become this grown up, this responsible, this… changed, tamed. She even pictured how it would be if she moved in with Justin now. Maybe she could shift her art gallery to his city, make Amy change schools and… And that's when she cut off her trail of thoughts. No. She couldn't look back.

Justin gulped. At that moment, he regretted saying those words and bringing the topic up. He wasn't upset about being turned down, but the fact that she wouldn't be with him hurt. He looked around uneasily. The air between them seemed so tangible, he felt like he could cut it in half with a knife. Or he could cut himself into half with a knife, for making everything so awkward again.

"It's funny." She suddenly laughed, tilting her head to a side and looking at him. "We didn't actually have a break off. We didn't say the words."

He shrugged, looking back at her. "Well, we didn't. Technically, we're still together."

She snorted, scrunching up her nose and poking his forehead with her fingertip. "I don't know about that, Justin. You are old now. You look awful. See, you have wrinkles in your forehead."

"I don't have wrinkles!" he panicked, slapping her hand away, snatching her purse, taking out her mirror, and studying his forehead properly. She covered her mouth with her hand, giggling quietly.

"See!" he held his hands up in the air, his fingers pointing at his forehead. "I don't have any wrinkles. Maybe _you _are old. Maybe you need a new pair of spectacles."

"Get with the times, Justin." She shot back, snatching her things back from him. "People use lenses these days."

He faked a gasp. "You _know_ the word lens? I don't remember you ever showing up in any of your optics classes. Or any classes for that matter."

She made a face, mimicking him, "_Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah_. Come on, let's go home now. I'm pretty sure Nathan needs our help." She chuckled, taking in a deep breath and moving forward.

She looked just so breathtaking, so beautiful. She felt just like she did twelve years back, she seemed just like the non-chalant girl he always knew and loved. And she was so close, after so long. He couldn't hold it in anymore. He reached out and grabbed her arm, making her stop. "Just a minute, Alex. There's something I wanted to do."

She turned her head and looked at him, utterly confused, completely clueless. He kept staring at her face, and she started feeling nervous, suddenly conscious about how close she was to him. She clumsily wiped at her cheeks. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

He shook his head, rubbing her cheeks with his thumb. She closed her eyes at his touch. He stared at her face, imprinting everything in his memory, and trying to see how much had changed. He couldn't figure out a single change in her- she still felt the same. "You know we're still together."

She swallowed nervously, finding it difficult to breathe. "Yeah, whatever." She shrugged, trying to play it off casually. "So?"

"So I wanted to do this." And with that he crashed his lips on hers.

She stiffened, eyes wide at what he had just done out of nowhere. He almost thought that she would push him away, slap him, and run away any second. But she didn't. All she did was stayed still, not protesting, not responding either. She was too shocked to react, and her brain failed to decide what to do. On one hand her heart was overwhelmed by the feel of his lips after so many years and she wanted nothing more than to melt in his arms, and on the other hand, a logical part kept telling her that what they were doing could make everything go wrong. Finally, she forced herself to speak. "Justin, this isn't right…"

He tightened his hold on her arm, his gaze drilling into her eyes. For years and years and years, he kept telling himself that he was over her, even though he knew it very well that he wasn't. This was the ultimate moment of defeat. He knew all his efforts had been futile and all the lies he told himself were in vain, and he didn't even want to try, didn't even want to pretend anymore. "I don't care."

"Justin, we-"

His phone rang, and he groaned, shaken awake from his insane trance and breaking away from her. She looked at the ground guiltily, her hands covering herself protectively. She felt so ashamed of herself at that moment. Ten years back, _she_ would have been the one who didn't care about anything else in the world, but today, she did care about her daughter and her son. She was kind of glad that the phone call pulled them apart.

"Amy? Is she okay?" she heard him say on the phone, and looked at him in concern. "Okay, we'll be there." He hung up, looking back at her with a scowl on his face. "Amy ran into a wall while talking on the phone. She's hurt. Plus, they are lost. We need to go and pick them up. Come on."

She whined, her eyes narrowed into a glare. "I can just kill that girl."

* * *

**One hour later**

"What were you thinking? How many times have I told you not to talk on the phone when you are walking on the road? And _how_ can you just run into a wall? Are you blind? Or are you trying to turn into Uncle Max? Because in that case, I'd be happy to let you live with him! I don't need you running into walls at my house!" Alex fumed furiously, sitting at the back seat of the cab, beside her daughter. She had scared the life out of her. If anything had happened to her, she would have…. "How can you be _so _irresponsible? You know, all my life I thought _I_ was a brat. You are proving me wrong every moment! You just have to do something or the other all the time!"

Amelia glared at her mother, her lips trembling with the tears she was fighting back. Her nose was red and swollen, her hands and elbows were bruised, and her forehead was still aching from the loud bang. She sniffled. "You know, it's bad enough I hurt myself. You don't need to yell at me right now."

"I am not yelling!" Alex yelled, glaring harder at her daughter when she noticed a bruise forming near her lips. "And you are not talking on the phone. In fact, you do not own a phone anymore."

"Mom!"

"Hand it over to me. _Now_." Alex ordered sternly, her voice so low that it was almost scary.

Jonathan gulped, putting an arm around Amelia and squeezing her shoulder to shut her up. "Calm down, Alex, this wasn't exactly her fault. She was just looking back at the lights and the colors of the city; she didn't see the wall in front."

"Yes, because she has never seen lights or colors before." Alex snarled, glaring at Jonathan. "Don't try to defend her. I can ground you too, right Justin? Justin!"

Justin shook his head and licked his lips. "Come on Alex, be reasonable. You can't ground them, they're on a vacation."

She gave him her "you're dead to me" look. "Really? Where was that attitude when _we_ were young? This is your fault! You are the one who gave her the phone!" she yelled at him, furious. She was sure she wasn't angry at him for this, but for the kiss they shared an hour back. It had shaken her to the core, ruffled everything that she was clinging onto, and now she was taking it out on him and everyone else around her. "If anyone should be playing nice now, it should be you, Justin."

Justin didn't reply. Instead, he turned his head from the front seat to look at Amelia. "Amy?"

She winced at his voice. That stern yet soothing voice was a hundred times scarier than anything her mother could have said or done.

"You will not spend so much time on the phone." Justin ordered softly. "Am I clear?"

Amelia nodded, looking down at the ground. There was no way she could defy her uncle. The day just kept getting worse.

"Who were you talking to anyway?" Justin asked curiously.

"Robert!" Alex snapped, making a face and mocking her daughter. "_I miss you so much. It's been two minutes. Tell me I'm cute. You like my hair? I love your hand-writing. He he. Ha-ha. " _

Amelia glared at her mother again. "Mom, I'm not in the mood today."

"Well, neither am I!" Alex shouted, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking out of the window of the car.

Justin gulped. The two ladies were so angry, it literally scared him. He could only imagine what it was like for them at home, where no one was there to interfere and break them apart. He could guess they fought it out like stubborn little kids.

He knew they were actually upset about different reasons- Amelia was mad at her father, Alex was mad at him. Now that he thought about it, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, this was sort of his fault. And now that he _was _here, he knew he had to make everything alright.

He kept quiet for the rest of the cab ride. When the cab reached home, he made Jonathan take Amelia upstairs. He dragged Alex to her room, and shut the door behind him. "Calm down."

"_Calm down? _How can I calm down?" she hissed, beating his chest with her fist. She felt like she could just chop him into pieces and feed him to a shark. "Why did you have to kiss me Justin? You know we can't"-

"-I know", he cut her off, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. She broke into tears, hugging him hard. He hugged her back, closing his eyes tightly. "And I don't care. I still love you…."

She breathed in deeply at his words. She was so tired, so exhausted; she couldn't even find the strength to say it back. All she could manage to do was cry in his arms. She clung onto his arms firmly. "Love you…" she faintly whispered.

He rubbed her back, his eyes gleaming with tears at her words. "Ever since I saw you again, this feeling…. It got so much stronger. I….. I can't keep my hands off you anymore. I'm sorry, Alex. I want you. I don't care about anything-"

"Mom are you done with your crazy-" Amelia slammed the door open, froze in her track when she saw her uncle was also there, and her mother was crying, and made a face. "Sorry. I'm not used to knocking. I didn't mean to…. Well, this is awkward. I should probably leave."

Alex pulled away, wiping her tears. She couldn't make eye contact with her, ashamed of what she had been doing with Justin just then. "No, wait, Amy." She pulled her daughter into a hug, petting her head. "Don't _ever_ scare me like this again."

Amelia shrugged, grinning. "Sorry mom, you know I don't like to make fake promises."

Justin smiled in relief. At least something was alright. Then he frowned, and shook his head, letting out a breath. That was too close. One minute more, one minute less, and they would have been caught. Maybe Alex was right, maybe this was too dangerous. He looked down at the ground guiltily. He _knew_ they would do this again.

* * *

**Chapter title from "Not yet" by Demi Lovato

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**A/N: Long chapter, phew! I'm exhausted. But I'm happy I could write so much of jalex :D Please review and tell me what you think! **

**BTW, if anyone cares, I uploaded a jalex video on my you tube. The link is in my profile. Wow, I wish I was this shameless in real life :P **


	8. Ch 7: Wrapped around in lies

**Disclaimer: chapter title from "Fukai mori" by Do as infinity. Lyrics from the songs "Fukai mori" and "Kimi ga inai mirai." Yes, I found awesome songs in another language again :D**

**

* * *

Chapter 7: Wrapped around in lies**

"…Go on with our lives and lose those things behind.

Wrapped around in lies, we stand there voiceless.

We want to live our lives, until we find a way.

Searching for the light for eternity…."

**

* * *

Year 2011**

_She blinked, staring at he mother in disbelief. Her eyes narrowed, and her face darkened with a scowl, as she fixed her mother with a look of confusion. "Did Nathan just call you mom?"_

_Theresa shrugged. "Well, I'm the one bringing him up. Plus, you guys call me mom too. I guess he picked it up from that… Relax honey, there's nothing to worry about, it's normal. As he grows up, he'll understand that I'm his grandmother."_

_She nodded, looking at her son with pain in her eyes. She was such a fool! Why was she still expecting him to call her mom? Why couldn't she still believe that this was happening? What motherly thing did she do for him? She visited him twice a week, stared at him for hours and hours, and that's it. She wasn't allowed to touch him, or feed him, or change his diapers, since she did not have experience with kids whatsoever, and she almost fell down once when she was holding him in her arms. She could do nothing more for him. Why would he call her his mom? _

_

* * *

_

**Year 2025**

"Mom", Jonathan sniffled in his sleep, wincing in pain when his left arm hurt. The sharp pain woke him up, and he opened his eyes to a dark unfamiliar room. "Mom?" he called out, sitting up in his bed in alarm. He gasped when he realized that the name had subconsciously escaped his lips, and instantly remembered that he did not have a mother. Ever. He could scream to the skies or the oceans and hear his own echo, but she would never hear him, and she would never answer him back. He sighed, rubbing his arm with his other hand, and blinking back the tears in his eyes, as he realized that he was in his grandparents' house, and he was safe.

Even today, whenever he was in pain or trouble, why would he call out for his non-existent mother? His father was the one looking after him, and his aunt was the closest thing in his life to a motherly figure. His mother was never there, so why would he feel her absence? Why did he still want his mother to be there for him?

* * *

"….There must still be the soul that you have left behind, hidden somewhere

In the deep deep of the forest lying among the trees….

Could we still have seen if we were there?

Could we have seen it if it were little?..."

* * *

Amelia twisted and turned in her bed, having dreams about an imaginary father that quickly turned into nightmares, digging its ugly claws into her skin and making her heart bleed. She woke up with a start after a particular dream, and the tears broke free. Resolute that she would not set another tear for a father that did not deserve it, she wiped her tears away, got up from the bed, and walked outside. She was going to walk into her mother's room and crash in there for the night, like she did so many times, but when she saw her uncle awake, and sitting all alone in the living room, doing nothing, her curiosity won over, and she stopped. "Justin?"

He jumped up in surprise at her voice, holding a hand close to his chest and reaching out for his wand in the table. "Oh, Amy, it's you!" he panted in relief, sitting back down on the table. "You scared me!"

She smiled proudly, and joined him on the couch. "Can't sleep?"

He shook his head. "Neither can you."

"I _was_ sleeping." she defended. "But I was having nightmares."

He eyed her curiously. "For a girl who acts as tough as you do, it's great that something scares you." He teased, shoving her with an elbow. "What did you see nightmares about? Big bears? Tigers? Unicorns?-"

"-I saw that I was killing my father." She cut him off coldly, looking him straight in the eyes.

His eyes glazed over with fear, terror, and indescribable pain. He stared at her incredulously. Did she really dream about killing…. him?

"I couldn't see his face", she continued, rubbing her forehead with her hands, "But there was this look in my mom's face…. That scared, helpless look…. Like she didn't want me to kill him. Like she was asking me why I destroyed her life. I…. I can't get it out of my head." She whined, hugging her knees close to her chest, and burying her head in her hands.

He moved closer to her, and rubbed her back. "Hey, it's okay. I know you'd never do something like that. It was just a dream."

She shook her head and chuckled sadly. "How do you know?"

He licked his lips, his throat feeling extremely dry. He was feeling like she would grab a knife from anywhere and stab him, even though he knew that would never happen. He shook his head to clear the nasty thoughts away. "Because I know you", he said confidently, patting her on the back, "You're better than that. I'm sure this is just the trauma after running into a wall. It'll be okay. Trust me….. Do you want me to give you some medicines?"

Her head snapped up, and she looked at him wide-eyed. "No! I can't waste my health insurance on this! I'm pretty sure I'd get into more trouble while I'm here."

He narrowed his eyes to warn her, but smiled tenderly. "I wasn't gonna charge you anything. I never do anyway... I don't like seeing you hurt like this for no reason. You don't need to hate your father. He isn't so bad."

"_He isn't so bad_?" she almost yelled, standing up and backing away from him. "Are you fucking kidding me? He destroyed our lives!"

He glared at her sternly. "Watch your tongue. I'm not your mom, I'm not going to tolerate that language."

She ignored his scolding completely, as if she didn't even hear him. "You are telling me that the person who destroyed your sister's life isn't so bad? _Really_?"

He felt like she just stabbed him in the chest. With her words. To think that eh destroyed Alex's life… He sighed sadly. "Have you ever paused to think that maybe he had some kind of restrictions? Maybe he didn't have another choice?"

She scoffed. "_Oh please_!"

"I-" he opened his mouth to say something, stuttered, and closed it again, took in a deep breath. "I know your father."

Her eyes widened at that, and her heart acceleration, running and jumping at full speed. Was he going to tell her who her father was? Would she finally know? She sat back on the couch quietly. "Who is he?" she asked anxiously, holding her breath. All these years of waiting and waiting might finally amount to something. She may finally get a clue.

He groaned. "I can't tell you that, I'm sorry. But I can tell you for sure that he loves your mom, a lot. She's his life. He misses her every day. He isn't with anyone else, because he's still in love with her…" he felt his eyes watering up as he poured his heart out, and looked away, afraid that he may get caught. "And he loves you too. A lot more than he loves anything else. He regrets giving you up _every single day_."

"Then why did he give me away?" she shot back, glaring at the floor, like she was trying to burn a hole into it. "Tell me, what constraint did he have?"

"I-" he chocked on his words again. "I can't tell you that either, I'm sorry. But your mother knows, and she understands."

She groaned at being denied the answers, and slammed a throw pillow with her first.

He gulped. "Look, I know it's hard living without a father, but you've got so many people in your life who care about you so much. You don't need to feel lonely." He took her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Your mother used to come to me whenever she needed someone. You can too."

She smiled at him softly. "Thanks, Justin, I really appreciate that….. Goodnight."

He nodded. "Night. Sleep well."

* * *

Jonathan never found the morning sun this charming. Because when morning came, with it, Amelia came into his room, and his day brightened up from the very beginning. "Hey", she huffed, sitting down on the bed.

He raised an eyebrow at that. "You woke up this early? Maybe you bumped into the wall too hard."

She glared at him. "We both know I didn't run into a wall." She looked down at the ground guiltily, and started wiping imaginary dust from the bed. "I just wanted to thank you for having my back yesterday. If you weren't there, I would have been run over by the car."

He shuddered at the image, the memory, and the reminder of the feelings that had gone through his heart at that time. He had realized how much she meant to him, and he had understood that he was ready to die for her. He wondered if it was weird….

"And thanks for not telling my mom." She continued. "She would have killed me-us-you."

Jonathan shrugged, taking her hand in his, and rubbing the back of her palm with his thumb. "Hey, anytime. I'm not just gonna stand there and let you get hurt. I can't imagine my life without you…."

She smiled at him, tangling her fingers firmly with his. "Well, I owe you one, so I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not gonna jump in if I ever see that you're about to get run over by a car."

He sighed dramatically, but smiled. "I know. And I don't want you to do that either. I can never forgive myself if anything happens to you because of me."

She smiled brightly, a feeling of warmth spreading through the hand that was in his grasp, and also through her heart. "How's your arm today?"

He shrugged. "Just don't punch me or shove me. And I think we can make it without getting caught."

"Sneaky." She grinned mischievously. "I love how sneaky you can be sometimes."

He rolled his eyes. "You are one to talk. You are sneaky _all the time._"

She shrugged. "My mom's sneaky, it's in my genes. Your dad's…. ugh!" she faked a shudder, chuckling.

He shrugged, staring at space blankly, and let out a sad laugh. "Maybe my mom is sneaky too…."

She gave his hand a squeeze, and placed a sweet kiss on his cheek. "If your mother wasn't such a whore, I'm sure she would have been proud of you for what you did yesterday."

He felt his heart speed up at the feel of her lips, but frowned when he heard her words. "Again. Don't intrude into my sensitive territory. Don't call my mother names! How would you feel if I called your father names?"

"Awesome!" She stuck out her tongue at him, and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "_Blah_ _blah blah blah blah_! Dork."

* * *

"….The reason I could hold back my tears

Was because of the warmth when our fingers touched…

A future without you

Is a future without meaning

I'll never let go of you again…"

* * *

**A/N: hey guys, hope you still remember this fic :D hope you liked this chapter, it's been a while. Please review :) … BTW, I wrote a jalex apocabigbang fic this year. That should be up sometime in late march-early April. Thought I should let you know :) **

**To the non-interested people: you know, it would be AWESOME if you guys could please tell me what was wrong with the fic. I'm here to learn, and I want your feedback to improve. Thanks :) **


	9. Ch 8: They don't seem to fade

**Lyrics are from "Cyclone" and "No thank you" **

**Chapter 8:** **T****hey don't seem to fade…

* * *

**

"I don't even know your fragrance

I don't even know your actions…

I don't even know your whereabouts

I don't even know your smile

It's all been drained into a swirl of anxiety…

The scars on my heart won't heal

And the tears of my heart won't stop

It seems I'll go mad, trapped in solitude…"

* * *

Amelia sat down in her room, feeling sleepy in the afternoon because she woke up so early in the morning, and began to doze off to sleep. She cuddled the pillow to her chest, trying to get comfortable. However, she kept twisting and turned, her mind flooded with thoughts. She kept thinking over her conversation with her uncle last night, and trying to decide what to do. The more she thought, the more she got curious about her father. She almost felt like she wanted to… know him? As she recalled and as she thought, images of her nightmare kept flashing in front of her eyes for tiniest of seconds, and she kept shuddering in horror at how vividly she still remembered it. It was like the ugly cruel image was imprinted in her mind- a knife in her hand, blood on her fingertips, the look of horror on her mother's face and her shrill screams drilling through her heart. But what haunted her the most was the tears and emptiness she saw on her own face- the look of regret. What did it all mean?

A gasp escaped her lips when she realized something. "I…. I don't…. hate him?"

* * *

"Uncle Justin?" she knocked on his door, waiting impatiently. For some reason, this time he was the person she turned to when she needed someone.

Justin jumped up in his chair at the sound of her voice. "Yeah, Amy, come in. The door's open."

"We need to talk." She cut to the chase, sitting down on a side of the bed without even asking for permission.

"Okay…." He trailed off uncertainly, wondering what this was all about.

She kept glancing at all parts of the room- she was here for the first time in her life- unsure where or how to begin. "I need help. I can't get the nightmare off my head."

He looked at her in alarm. "It must have affected you pretty bad…. Wanna talk about it?"

"I- I keep remembering that look on my mother's face…" she sighed, shaking her head. "You know when I have seen that terrified look on my mother's face before?"

Justin gulped, uncertain. "W-When?"

"When I-" she chocked, and tried again, "When I talk shit about my dad, when I call him name, she gets all…. hurt."

Justin sighed. "Look, Amy-"

"-You know what else I realized?" she interrupted anxiously. "I…. I was horrified to see that I killed my father. I…. I don't wanna kill him… I can't believe I would think of something like that!"

"Shhh…." Justin soothed, hugging his daughter tightly. "It was just a bad dream."

"But people say you see your strongest desires in your dreams." She sniffled, horrified by that thought. The last thing she wanted to be was a psychotic heartless killer.

"You also see your greatest fears in your dreams." Justin countered firmly, tightening his hold on her and rubbing her back. "You said it yourself Amy, you don't want to kill your father. _I know _you can't kill _anyone…_This is just an effect of those R-rated movies your mother lets you watch no matter how many times I tell her it's not suitable for you!" he ranted, frowning in disapproval, but relax again, and ruffled her hair. "You're just scared that you would want to kill him if you meet him."

"What if I do?" she asked fearfully.

He pulled back, and looked into her eyes. "You are not dreaming now. So tell me, do you want to kill your father?"

She bit her lip, shook her head, looked down at the ground and swallowed. This was hard for her to say. "No…. I…. promise me you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you?"

"I promise." He replied quickly. He needed to hear what was going on in her mind. All of it.

"I…." she hesitated for a moment more, but finally decided to confess. "I saw myself crying in the dream after I…." she shuddered again, unable to bring herself to say it out loud. "I actually think I wanna meet my father. I… I want to know him…. you said you know him, right? Do you think you can arrange a meeting with him? Just once, please? I swear it will be a one-time deal and I will never ever disturb him again." she pleaded desperately.

The pain in her voice made his hurt ache. He looked away guiltily. "I'll…. Try my best….. I promise."

* * *

"I don't need memories

Because I'm strongly, deeply in love with the now

Being flooded with memories is a sweet, adult-like luxury

And yet... I wanna refrain from it a bit longer…

I don't need promises

Because now is the only time for living

Wanting promises is a naive, childlike frailty

So long ago... I graduated from that…."

* * *

"Aren't you gonna tell me to go away?" Jonathan asked his aunt in shock, staring at the TV screen, unable to look, yet unable to look away, his eyes stuck in inquisitiveness.

Alex scrunched up her nose in confusion. "Why?"

"Because I'm not old enough to watch this movie!" he snapped incredulously, tearing his face away from the screen. "Dad would kill us!"

"Yeah, well, _I_ am not scared of your dad." She rolled her eyes. "Justin's living so uptight, I hate it! He doesn't realize that the kids would get into trouble so less if we are friendly with them!"

"Explains Amelia." Jonathan mumbled under his breath sarcastically.

Alex glared at him, but continued. "I mean he doesn't even realize that every teen is gonna sneak and watch this stuff anyway."

"How?" Jonathan asked curiously.

Alex snorted. "Never heard of the internet? Of I forgot that you're Justin's son." She snickered, shoving his side with an elbow. "You are too goody-goody to watch these things."

Jonathan glared at her, snatched the remote, and turned off the TV.

"Hey!" Alex protested, but kept quiet when she saw him glare again. "You and Justin are no fun." she complained.

"You and Amy are too much fun." he shot back. "I still can't believe you like cursing at each other when you're bored!"

"It's fun to see who runs out of curses first!" She protested, sticking out her tongue at him. "Oh come on, every girl her age curses anyway. It's better I know how much she has learnt and how much I need to watch over her." she winked, grinning proudly.

"You are so sneaky." Jonathan wondered out loud. "But you're a cool mom… I wonder how my mom is…." He blurted out before he could stop himself, covered up his mouth with his hands when he realized what he had said, and stared at Alex wide-eyed, hoping she didn't hear it.

Alex blinked in surprise. "_What?_""

"My mom…." Jonathan sighed. "Sometimes I think about her…."

Alex shrugged, fighting back the pain she felt surging in her hurt, flowing through her veins. She had to hear her daughter talk bad things about her father, and now she'd have to hear her son rant about her. "I guess it's okay for you to hate her. I mean you've gotta learn to live with all the bad things that happened…."

"I don't hate her." Jonathan snapped angrily, but controlled himself and apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so…. rude…. I just…. I know I don't know her and I have no memories of her whatsoever…. But I love my mom. Whoever she is…. I know no one ever promised me that she'd ever meet me, but _I know_ she will…"

Her heart swelled when she heard the words, and tears started welling up in her eyes. She felt a new ray of hope, and wondered how it would be if she told him that she was his mother…. She decided not to be impulsive and to think over it first, but her mind started building pictures of a reconstructed life already, she started thinking about being with Justin again. She hugged her son tenderly, closed her eyes, and sighed happily. "And I know she'll meet you someday, I know she loves you too…. whoever she is."

* * *

Justin and Amelia entered the living room, to find Jonathan and Alex sitting there, hugging.

Justin narrowed his eyebrows suspiciously. "Tell me you are not teaching him to mess with him?"

She batted her eyelashes and looked at him innocently. "I'm not teaching him to mess with you?"

"Alex!"

"Relax, we were just talking." She rolled her eyes, annoyed easily. "Honestly!"

He was still suspicious but decided to drop the topic. There were so many more important things that he needed to discuss with her. "I… I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Okay?" she raised an eyebrow, resting her head on the arm of the couch, and waited for him to continue.

He fidgeted with his hands for a while and his eyes flickered everywhere, but he finally found the courage to bring it up. He had made up his mind, even more after talking with Amelia. "Did you think about what I proposed earlier?"

She stared at him blankly. "Justin, by now you should know that I don't care enough to memorize your words, so….."

Justin glared at her, warning her not to joke. He looked at her seriously. "Did you think over about moving in with me?"

* * *

**A/N: evil cliff-hanger XD yes, I hear your complains about no jalex, so next chapter is jalex. Anyone excited about whether Alex would move in with Justin? Review up and let me know. I'm losing inspiration when reviews are dropping :P **


	10. Ch 9: We'll surely meet again

**Chapter title and lyrics from "Loop" by Heidi **

**Chapter 9: we'll surely meet again

* * *

**

**Year 2012**

"_Do you seriously not care about the Wizard Competition anymore?" Justin asked in wonder, sitting at the edge of the bed in her Russo room and watching Nathan sleep, making sure he stayed asleep while Amelia cried. _

_Alex glared at him, frantically rocking Amelia in her arms to stop her wailing, but to no avail. "Justin just shut her up!" she groaned tiredly._

_"What a loving mother!" he retorted, taking over Amelia from her, and swinging her from side to side in his arms, humming a dorky tune that soon soothed her to sleep. _

"_I'm sorry this semester's a bitch and I still couldn't get a damn thing done thanks to all the drama in my life!" she hissed, keeping her voice low enough so that she didn't wake the kids up. _

"_Are you really that indifferent to the Wizard Competition?" he asked again, wondering what was going on in her mind. Sure, she never did care as much as he did, but magic was still very important to her. Now…_

"_Look, Justin" she said, sitting down on the bed and sprawling the papers all over her lap, "Right now, all I care about is my life with you and the kids. So I don't really care if you win. Either way, I get my way." She finished with a shrug, shooting him a mischievous grin. She knew she could manipulate him into doing all the magic she needed. And if Max won…well, if they were being real, the chances of Max winning was life the chances of an egg-shell coming in the shape of a square. _

_He smiled, nodding his head in understanding. "Okay…" _

_

* * *

_

_Justin tucked his hands inside his pocket and walked through Alex's door, unable to keep the happy smile off his face. It had been two weeks since he last saw her, and now he couldn't wait to see her again! His heart pounded against his chest as he came closer to her room- no matter how many years they had spent together, she always gave him this nervous, excited first love, first date feeling. His smile grew wider when he remembered their first date and opened the door to her dorm room- _

_And he found her sitting in bed, reading. With another boy. _

"_Umm, hi." Justin mumbled, scratching the back of his neck uneasily. _

"_Hi!" Alex smiled, throwing her book away, and gesturing for him to come in with her hands. "Justin, this is Dustin, my new friend. And Dustin, this is Justin, my brother." _

_Dustin smiled, shaking hands with Justin. "Nice to meet you. Even more cause our name rhymes."_

_Justin nodded, still a bit taken aback about meeting someone Alex never mentioned before, and forced a smile on his face. "Nice to meet you too."_

_

* * *

_

"_Are we really going to do this?" Alex yelled, throwing the thing she could find nearest to her- a magazine in this case- on the floor and stomping her feet. When Justin started questioning her about Dustin and why she never told him she had a friend like that, how close they were, why she spent so much time with him, yada yada yada, she had completely lost it. What hurt was seeing that he had no trust in her. There was no way in this world that she would cheat on him- she was cheating on everyone in her life because of him. _

"_You never even mentioned him to me!" he yelled back in an accusing tone, glaring at her sternly. Something about Dustin was giving him the chills, and with Alex acting non-chalant, he grew even angrier. He felt like he would explode any second, or vaporize and vanish. He was that mad. "And you're always with him now!" _

"_I thought we were past the jealous, possessive stage!" she gritted through her teeth. "I had two kids with you! Doesn't that prove enough? Or do I have to walk on fire and fly through oceans to prove my love for you? Oh wait, I can't do that anymore! You're the family wizard now!" _

"_I thought you didn't care about that!" he yelled again, tugging at his hair in frustration, the conversation shifting to another irrelevant topic like it usually did during couple's fights. "Did you mean _anything_ you said, Alex?"_

"_Believe me, I mean it when I say this!" she said firmly, her eyes fixed directly on his. "I want you out of my room. _Now_."_

_He was too angry, too hurt, and too shocked to stay. _

* * *

"_I hate it when we fight", she mumbled against his chest, sighing contently. _

"_Mmm" he agreed, running a hand through her hair tenderly. "But I love it when we make-up." _

_She blushed and grinned. She had to agree to that. _

_

* * *

_

_Alex hummed a tune happily, picking up her clothes from all across the room, folding them clumsily, and shoving them in a bag. After a long and tiring week, she was going to get together with Justin for the weekend and see the kids too. She was so excited!_

"_What's up?" Dustin asked, knocking twice at her door and peeking his head in to see what she was doing. "Need a hand?" he offered sweetly. _

"_Sure." Alex mumbled happily, ignoring Justin's warnings and pleadings and orders to stay away from this 'stupid creepy guy', and lazily lying back on her bed, letting him do her work, while she smiled to herself and thought about Justin. _

_Dustin worked quietly, folding her clothes more clumsily than she did, but hey, she didn't have to do any work, so why complain? Suddenly, he paused when he found something lying on the floor. He picked up the wrist watch, observing it. "This looks like a boy's way… Who's this?" _

_Alex glanced at it for a second, recognized it instantly and shrugged. "It's Justin. He must have lost it here yesterday."_

_Dustin raised an eyebrow curiously. "But he wasn't here yesterday. At least not during day time…" His eyes widened dramatically at that aspect. _

_Her heart skipped beats, beating to a rhythm of terror now. She laughed out uneasily, holding her stomach in her hands. "You know, it's creepy and disgusting, but it's so ridiculous that… I can't stop laughing!"_

_Dustin hung his head low, looking down at the ground guiltily. "I'm sorry…" _

_

* * *

_

_This was the best weekend ever. With Jonathan calling her name, talking to her, playing with her, with Justin paying all his attention to Amelia. Everything was perfect. Too perfect._

_And they decided to preserve the moments. In the form of photographs. _

"_I'll take the one with me and Nathan." Alex declared, snatching it from his hand without even asking for his consent. "And you can keep that stupid photo of you and me." _

"_Actually, I got you a copy of that too if you wanted it…" Justin smiled, handing it over to her. _

_She nodded gratefully, but rolled her eyes. "Great! Now I can turn my room into dorkvilla!"_

_

* * *

_

"_Were you and your brother always this close?" Dustin wondered, staring at the picture on the table beside her bed._

_She shrugged non-chalantly. "Well, Max can be pretty weird sometimes, so yeah, Justin and I get each other really well…" _

_Dustin nodded, but his eyebrows narrowed together in suspicion. Something wasn't right. He could just see and feel it. From the way the two siblings acted, something was fishy... _

_

* * *

_

_One week later, Abby walked in on her and Justin kissing in her room. She gasped out in shock, unable to react anyway, while Alex broke away from him quickly and looked away. Justin reached for his wand immediately, erasing everyone's memory. Which left Abby trying to remember what shocking thing she felt she knew, and Justin and Alex wondering what was going on. _

_When Justin restored their memories with the jog your memory spell, they both knew this had been too close… way too close. If it wasn't for Justin and magic, who knows what would have happened today? _

_

* * *

_

"_I'm listening!" she whined, yawning and tying at her laptop at the same time. "You buy any apartment you want… Will do. As long as I can have my own art studio."_

"_Yeah, well, you can't have your studio", he stated bluntly. "Not now at least. This house is really small Alex. We barely have room for us and the kids."_

"_We barely have rooms for us and the kids." She mimicked, rolling her eyes. "I don't see the big problem, Justin! Buy another apartment!"_

"_But we don't have enough money to-"_

"_-I am not moving in with you till I have my art studio." She repeated firmly, though she knew in her mind that she was being playful and would give in anyway. Just moving in with her family and starting her life was enough for her. They could work the rest out, slowly, eventually. Well, Justin could work the rest out. She would just sit back and relax, and maybe paint some pictures now and then. She smiled happily at all her lazy thoughts. "Bye Justin. Love you."_

_She heard a snicker from across the room. "Every sister moves in with her brother and says I love you." Dustin snorted, inviting himself into her room._

_She sat straight up in her bed. "Have you been spying on me?" she shrieked, "You know what I can do about that?"_

"_Nothing." Dustin snickered again. "You are the one in trouble, now that I've figured out about your little affair with your brother… Interesting. It's really fascinating. I wonder whether your parents will find it fascinating too…"_

"_What do you want?" Alex asked fearfully, her voice almost cracking. She could have denied, because she was sure he didn't have anything at all, but she needed to hear his terms, and figure out if he had any evidence in hand._

"_Your art assignment." He announced quickly, shooting her a dirty smirk. "Did you think I was after you for no reason? You paint better than I do. You're one of the best I've ever seen. With your assignment, I can start an awesome life... so…." He faked a sigh that angered her even more, and titled his head to look at her. "What's it gonna be? Your brother-slash-boyfriend or your assignment?" _

_The thought of getting caught and separating from Justin was terrifying. She didn't want to take any chances. She still couldn't believe Dustin was doing this! She trusted him as a friend! Maybe it was because his name sounded like Justin…. Justin. Gosh! She knew he'd be mad if he found out; he didn't even want her to hang out with Dustin. There was no way Justin could hear a word about it. "Fine, I'll do it", she crossed her arms over her chest and began her negotiation. "But Justin will not know about this. Okay?"_

_He shrugged. "Fair enough. I get what I want. So deal."_

_

* * *

_

"_Justin…" she mumbled into his chest, hugging him tightly. "You know I love you right?"_

_His heart leapt to his throat in panic. From the way she said those words, he knew something wasn't right. "What's wrong Alex?" he asked urgently, tucking her hair behind her ears so that he could get a proper look at her eyes. _

_She shook her head, tangling her hand with his. "Nothing. I… I just wanted to say I love you. Is that so bad?" _

_He shook his head skeptically. "No… I love you too." _

_

* * *

_

**Year 2013**

_This time Max was the one who caught them in action in their house. He stood wordlessly, staring at his two siblings. _

_Justin took out his wand immediately, but Alex slapped his hand away- they were not going to do this with their sibling. Not without hearing out what he had to say at least. _

"_Max….?" Alex asked uncertainly, unable to bear the silence in the room anymore. "Say something!"_

"_You guys are…" Max gulped, trying to put all the pieces together, and his eyes widening when he realized that they may have been dating for a long time now. "I don't think I want to… Justin, please, just…. Erase my memory. I can't live knowing what you guys are doing…" _

_Alex looked down at the ground in shame, blinking back the tears in her eyes. Justin nodded. _

_She wondered what was going on. Was she being too careless? Were they that obvious? Why was everything working against them? Why did it feel like the universe was trying to pull them apart?_

_

* * *

_

_Dustin barged into her room angrily. "How did you get a better grade than me?"_

_Alex shrugged, "I don't know. I guess they liked my new assignment better. So, thank you."_

_He glared at her angrily. "Oh no, you don't get away with this so easily! I'm going to destroy your life", he grabbed her roughly by her arm, his face close to her ears. "Listen to me carefully. You are not going to be with Justin. If you try to be with him, I guess I'll just have to post this…" _

_He pulled back, took out his cell phone from his pocket, and showed her the pictures he had taken of her and Justin kissing._

_She trembled in fear and gasped in shock, placing a hand on her chest and another to cover her mouth. Now what was she going to do?_

_

* * *

_

"_And you are telling me this now? Why?" Justin yelled, not even looking at her in fury. He couldn't believe she had kept it from him for such a long time, he thought they had promised to tell each other everything. _

_She sniffled, her eyes already red from all the crying. "Justin, I'm sorry…I just didn't want to get you worried… I'm messing up all the time and you have to fix the messed for me. I don't like being such a pain in the ass all the time…" _

_His eyes softened and he shook his head. "No. I like cleaning up your messes, you know that…so what do you want me to do about this mess?" _

_She bit her lip, trembling as she thought. She swallowed hard, wondering if she could get any words out of her throat. "I don't fucking care about what he does to us. But the kids…Justin, I don't want a bad future for them."_

_Justin sighed, sitting down on the bed beside her, and patting her knee comfortingly. "You don't want me to try and see if I can stop him?"_

"_Sure. Stop him. Stop Max. Stop Abby. Stop X. stop Y. stop the whole damn world!" she ranted angrily. "But if anything happens to my kids, I swear, Justin…" _

_He sighed again, this time, in anxious disappointment. "You're the right. I don't want the kids to suffer either. So… I'm offering you an out."  
_

_She looked up at him in surprise. "What?" _

_"You don't need to move in with me." he explained. "You have your own life, I have mine."_

"_But I don't want to lose you" she said, her voice cracking, as she hugged him tightly, "I don't want this to tear us apart. I love you."_

_He inhaled sharply, hugging her back just as tightly. "Neither do I. I love you too… if you had told me about this earlier, maybe we could have done something, but right now… This is the only option Alex."_

"_I don't want to break off." She mumbled stubbornly, clinging onto his shirt and bunching it up in her fist._

"_Neither do I." he chuckled sadly. "Let's try long-distance." _

_

* * *

_

"_This is it then." Alex asked, hugging her arms around herself to calm herself down. "I'm on my own. You're on your own. No more visits, no love talks, or anything couply…. Justin do we really have to do this?"_

"_Yes", he repeated firmly for the tenth time that day, "At least for the time being. We can figure something out in a few years."_

_She hesitated, staring down at her feet. Right now, she felt like she wanted to go back and think again. There had to be some other way… "A few years is a really long time, Justin. I don't want to lose you for even a second…" _

_His resolve was crumbling every second she was with him for the very last time. "Look, Alex, it's your choice." He began, speaking softly, "We can be together and I'm ready to take all the chances. What the hell can he possibly do?... but since he's such a crazy psychotic loser… it's your choice." _

_And the world stood still as she thought. Pictures of her with Justin. Pictures of her with Nathan and Amelia. Pictures of a picture perfect home. And then the canvas was painted with blood and smoke as she saw her parents looking at them with scorn and disgust in their eyes, and their children being ripped away from her arms. She shuddered at the image. But with a heavy heart, she made up her mind. _

_She sniffled again, running into his arms and kissing him madly. "Good bye Justin." _

_And she cried bitterly, for the first time in her life. For his part, he wasn't feeling anything anymore at all. Just Alex in his arms, her scent, her smell, her texture, her feel… He was memorizing everything for all eternity. _

_

* * *

_

"Everything that is reflected in those eyes, isn't it all an illusion?  
I wonder how you feel continuing in this tangled melting love?  
Looking  
Anywhere  
For the reason why we're connected...  
Even if we were to part one day  
We'd surely meet again...  
You and I overlapping..."

**

* * *

Year 2025**

"Alex?" he asked worriedly, waving a palm in front of her to wake her up from her reverie.

She blinked, shaking awake from her flashback trance with a start, and holding her head in her hands. Her hands were still trembling from all the memories, and her bangs were sticking to her sweaty forehead. Looking back, she wondered why exactly she didn't make Justin use magic to get rid of the evidence- or the blackmailing guy for the matter. She wondered why she let a crazy competitive jerk and loser destroy her whole life. Well, when she looked up and saw Amelia and Jonathan staring at her, she got her answer.

And now that she had another chance, now that she was old enough to realize that nothing would go wrong, since she hadn't seen Dustin in years, and was sure that he wasn't stalking her, Abby was out of the picture for a long time, and Max didn't remember anything at all. She wondered if she should move in with him like she wanted…. would it be the right thing to do? Would it be the wise, safe thing to do?

She scoffed. Enough of being the mature, responsible mother. For once in twelve years she wanted to be just Alex, impulsive reckless Alex.

"Mom?" Amelia asked nervously, not liking the way her mother was acting. "Are you alright?"

Alex shook her head at herself. No, she just couldn't do something that could go wrong and hurt her daughter….

Justin rubbed her back softly. "Talk to me, Alex."

She groaned. She really did want to be with him again. She wanted him back in her life _so bad. _

"I'm okay." She mumbled, reassuring them and hearing all of them sigh in relief, as she wondered what exactly she should do. "Help me out here, Amy! What do _you_ wanna do?"

* * *

**A/N: what? Like you didn't want to know what exactly tore them apart :P yes I know the cliffhanger is still hanging but you know it as well as I do that I don't write sad jalex ;) anyways, hope you liked this chapter. This was really long, and I worked really hard. Please review! Reviews have not gone up yet, but you know what? All the reviews I get are special to me, so thank you, I'm grateful for all of them. I'm not just gonna let my last jalex flicker out just because I'm not getting the response I expect! **


	11. Ch 10: Moving on, moving in

**Disclaimer: lyrics from "Yokan" by Heidi. **

**Chapter 10: Moving on, moving in.

* * *

**

"Help me out here, Amy! What do _you_ wanna do?"

Amelia shrugged, digging her nails and trying to picture what it would be like to move in with them. "I think it would be cool to live with Uncle Justin. It would be easier for me to do with Wizard studies when I'm face to face with him. Learning magic over the phone SUCKS. And then I can finally get to date Robert in person!"

"I don't like you dating my best friend!" Jonathan complained, annoyed by the idea that in near future, he would have to see his best friend suck faces with his cousin, whom he was by now pretty sure he had developed a tiny crush on, if he was ever willing to admit the fact to himself and embrace death.

"And I don't like you dating online!" Justin added, annoyed by the fact that his little daughter was playing with fire and could get burnt any time.

"Suck it up losers", Alex scolded them both, "He's Harper and Zeke's son. I know they'll take care of everything, this way I don't have to worry about her dating life!"

Justin sighed in defeat. "Really Alex?"

"On the other hand", Amelia continued, "It would mean changing cities and leaving all my friends behind. _That's_ not something that I wanna do."

"Jonathan?" Alex offered. "Care to share your views on this?"

"Hey, free lodgings!" Amelia added to the list, trespassing, "Free doctor. Free food. Free TV. Free-"

"-Nothing's free. Alex is sharing the expense with me." Justin cut her off. As much as he'd love to be the knight in the shining armor, if he was being realistic, they could provide the kids more if they both worked. Besides, there was no way he was letting Alex become lazy again! That would leave her more time to destroy the house!

Alex chuckled. "Actually, it would be more like free slaves, free homework, free cooking, free laundry, free-"

Justin sighed again. "-Really Alex?"

"Do I want Amelia moving in with me and wrecking my life? No." Jonathan said bluntly, cutting into the conversation and expressing his views. He knew it in his heart that he was lying. He wanted Amelia to be with him _so bad _that he hated it. He ignored the thoughts and feelings, hoping this was a temporary thing and would go away. "But I really want you to move in with me Aunt Alex. So I' guess I'm with dad in this matter… Please move in with us Aunt Alex." he pleaded.

Justin held his breath, waiting for her answer. _Please say yes. Please say yes. _This was more terrifying to him than the time when he had told her that he loved her, because, well, being Alex, she had expressed her feelings first and he didn't have to worry about her not reciprocating. This time though, everything was at stake, and he knew he'd be heart broken if she turned him down twice and shattered all his dreams. He knew she didn't want to go back again, not now, not after so much, but he hoped that her love for him would conquer everything else.

Alex nodded. She already had a great idea in her mind, like always. "Okay, so, how about this. We stay at your place for a week and see how that goes. Like a demo kind of thing…. Then we can decide what to do."

Amelia shrugged happily. "That sounds good to me."

"Me too." Jonathan agreed.

Justin snorted. "I know you don't care about my opinion but yes this seems logical enough to me too."

* * *

Alex felt her heart skip beats whenever she thought about living with Justin. Her stomach fluttered with butterflies after a really long time. She was just so excited! At the same time, she hoped and prayed that nothing went wrong this time and they could be together forever. She also found herself waking up in the middle of nights because of nightmares, but she brushed them aside, because hey, dreams are called dreams and not premonition!

Justin found himself groaning in his sleep whenever he thought of all the naughty things Alex would make him do. He blushed during day time whenever his eyes met hers or their fingers brushed. His heart went on overdrive whenever he realized that he would be spending so much time with her again and acting like a couple. His eyes filled with tears whenever he thought about her and understood how much he missed her for all these years. _Gosh, so much!_

Amelia was unusually happy for her taste, and instead of trying to figure out the reason behind this, she spent her precious time plotting about pranks she'd pull on Jonathan. She slept with a smile on her face all night.

Jonathan spent the time convincing himself that he was not falling for his cousin, because hello, it was ridiculous! He whined when he realized that her moving in could intensify this crazy things he had going on in his mind. But he kept his hopes high- maybe it'd go away when he'd see how lazy and selfish and childish and gross Amelia was?

* * *

"I don't like the idea of Justin and Alex moving in together." Jerry mumbled, "I don't want the curse to come true."

Theresa huffed. "Just listen to yourself Jerry! Justin and Alex!... That's ridiculous! They had kids. _With other people_!"

"We don't really know who these other people are…." Jerry pointed out.

Theresa blinked. "Are you trying to tell me that you think my grandkids are…." She shook her head and glared at him. "You are _out of your mind_!"

Jerry gulped. "Whatever you say, honey."

* * *

**Two days later**

"I can't believe you teleported us all, dad." Jonathan hissed in his father's ears so that the others couldn't hear him. "You said we weren't allowed to use magic for our personal gains!"

Justin shrugged, whispering back an answer in his defense. "What was I supposed to do? Alex wouldn't listen!"

"And the paint stinks like oil." Alex added to her list of the things that she didn't like about Justin's house. Truth be told, she loved it. But there was no way she would tell him that! At least not in front of witnesses! "I'm gonna have to repaint it!"

"Which is my room?" Amelia asked tiredly, yawning and casually bored. "I need to sleep first."

"I'll show you. It's right beside my room." Jonathan offered promptly, gesturing her to follow him upstairs.

Which left Justin and Alex behind. Alone.

"So…." Alex began softly, with an evil glint on her eyes and a sly grin on her lips that made him gulp. She felt like her heart would burst out of her chest any minute. She also felt nervous tingles with Justin so close to her. She bit her lip seductively. "Do I get to share a room with you?"

He stared at her incredulously, with that typical dorky scandalized look on his face. "NO! Alex!"

Would you blame her for the dreamy happy smile that crept on her face?

* * *

"No matter what happens, I will never leave you

So don't stop, and don't be afraid.

When you do turn around and look back at me

We will surely be smiling at each other…"

* * *

**A/N: This was more of a filler chapter, hope you still liked it, please review :) thanks to all the anonymous reviewers too, know that I never thank you individually because I was being stalked, but your reviews mean a lot to me :) **

**Things are going to intensify from the next chapter with jalex and jalex, and I need time and focus for that. Which is why don't expect the next update anytime soon. My semester exams are up and I'm not going to wreck my senior year for a fic that's barely scraping by :P Having said that, I'd still try my best to update ASAP :) **


	12. Ch 11: On the other side of yesterday

**Chapter title and lyrics from "love so sweet" By Arashi.  
**

**Chapter 11: On the other side of yesterday

* * *

**"You'll have your own room", Justin said sternly, his cheeks coloring like a peach in the sun, and looked away with a shy smile. He tried not to look at her but his eyes kept slipping back to her face. He squirmed, struggling to get the words out. "But you can sleep with me. If you want to…"

She looked like she didn't know what to do with her face. She wanted to break into a victorious grin and do a victory dance, she wanted to burst into tears of relief because the drought was finally over, she wanted to smile smugly and tease him till he cried, but all she could do was stand still and let her ears burn hot. She huffed. "You bet I want to!" she mewed, jumping onto him then and there.

"Alex!" he hissed, pushing her back, looking her in the eyes, frowning with his eyebrows. "The kids are _upstairs!_"

Alternating between sighing and pouting, she finally nodded reluctantly. "Fine. I'll see you when they fall asleep then."

* * *

"So you like your room?" Jonathan asked enthusiastically. He willed his eyes to look into her face, even though they strained to turn away. She was looking so cute; he was afraid that his jaw would drop open.

She plopped down on the bed lazily, placing her wand beside her, kicking off her shoes ten feet into the air and into two corners of the room. "Well the bed's comfy. Maybe this will feel like home once I unpack." Yawning, too tired to do any more work, she picked up her wand again, and muttered a spell to change into her jammies. "Goodnight Nate", she mumbled sleepily, pulling the blankets over herself. "Turn off the nights and get out."

"Okay", his voice quivered when he looked at her, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. For the first time since he could remember, his house felt like home, and his family seemed... complete, in more ways than platonic. "Good night then."

* * *

_"Ever since I realised that what was shining wasn't the mirror and it wasn't the sun – it was you_  
_There's been one more love story ..._  
_My wounded dreams are on the other side of yesterday_  
_Let my love song ring out into the sky..."_

* * *

As soon as he had checked in on the kids and made sure they were asleep, Justin snuck into her room. "Alex…. are you awake?"

A snort was her first response. "No, this is my dummy speaking", she retorted, shifting to a side and making room for him on the bed.

...

...

His eyes grew distant; his heart raced, his mind was hazed with thoughts about what he was going to do and the possible consequences. Should he do this? Was it alright? What would happen if someone caught them?

...

...

And then he looked at her sprawled on her bed. His love for her grew dominant, all his resistances crumbled to the depths of his soul, and he knew he didn't want to think anymore. He shed the skin of right-and-wrong, as he closed the door and locked it. This was the point of no return.

Within a moment, he was on top of her, kissing her with all his repressed hunger of years.

The feeling was over-whelming, the sort of all-encompassing feeling that she had been watching in movies. Her head rolled back and stars exploded behind her eyelids. She let out a loud moan of approval. "Whoa! Justin! I didn't know you still had it in you."

"Can you blame me?" he mumbled against her neck, sending shivers down her spine. "I didn't get laid for _twelve years_. I'm a guy!" he whined, with a strange sense of force behind his words in contrast with the gentle action of his fingers, and bit into her skin. "Gosh you're still so hot." His throat choked into a low growl, his eyes completely glazed over with lust.

She moaned again. "I'm a milf."

He broke away from her and looked into her eyes, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, his jaws tense. "Umm…. What's a milf?"

She groaned, writhed, and smacked his shoulder blades. "Really Justin? Just when I was starting to find you hot?"

* * *

Jonathan found himself waking up early in the morning for some reason- maybe it was because of the dreams he had, the dreams that seemed to have been trying to suck him into another world? He looked at the clock and groaned. Going back to sleep wasn't an option, since he'd wake up in two more hours anyway. So he decided to get off the bed and take a quick morning shower, then maybe start with the break-fast and lend his dad a helping hand. On his way to the bathroom, he stopped when he came across Amelia's room. Her door was closed, but not locked, and he was finding it hard to resist the urge to take a quick peek at her. He wanted to see her face early in the morning, to see her sleeping peacefully, to walk inside, run his hands through her hair and... He shook his head at himself. _No. She's asleep, I can't take advantage of her. And if she wakes up, she'd be creeped out. _He sighed, turning around and walking away. Now he needed the shower even more.

* * *

Waking up in the morning spooned in his arms was what Alex had been dreaming about all these years, and now it was finally coming true. When she woke up, she vaguely registered that the arms around her felt familiar, filling her with a sense of security. She blinked her eyes a couple of times, and waited for them to adjust to the daylight sinking in through an open window. It took her a while to remember where exactly she was, and a while more to believe that this was actually happening, that this was reality showering its kindness on her. She turned around, facing him. "Justin?"

He groaned, half-asleep, half-aware of someone-something calling his name, and burrowed his face on the pillow.

"Justin!" she sank her nails into his arm to wake him up.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" he woke up with a start, yanking his hand away from his unknown enemy. "Alex!" he roared, wincing in pain when he noticed her.

She rolled her eyes. "It wasn't my fault, cry baby! You wouldn't wake up!"

He glared at her. "When I heard your voice I thought I was dreaming again!"

The corners of her lips quirked up, but she shrugged off the smile that was threatening to form. "Well you better get to your room now..."

"Right." He mumbled, getting up and picking up his discarded clothes, dressing up again. She pulled the blanket up to her shoulders, and watched him. Smiling at her, he placed a soft kiss on her hair, and a quick one on her lips. "I had a great night…. I love you."

"Love you too." she smiled back. "I had a great time too. Just try to be less dorky next time, and maybe I won't throw you off the bed."

* * *

_"...Memory, I'll never, ever forget this sky, even if we're apart_  
_There'll never again be a season when I meet someone I love so much..._  
_Shine brighter, my greatest lady, this love is sure to softly reach you..."_

* * *

Amelia was shaken awake at noon by her mother. "Come on, get ready, we're gonna visit Harper today."

She sat up straight at those words. "You mean I get to go on a real date with Robert today?"

Jonathan rolled his eyes in annoyance, but his heart felt so heavy with disappointment, he felt like his own shadow was trying to drag him down. This was not going well. At all.

* * *

"Amy", he pulled her to a side once she was ready and set to go. His throat went dry and breathing became difficult when he realized how beautiful she looked- he didn't want to take his eyes off her, _ever_. Quickly recomposing himself, he began. "Look, Robert doesn't exactly look like his photo is on facebook. So don't be upset if things don't go as planned."

She narrowed her eyes into a suspicious glare, her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to scare me off from dating your best friend? Because it's not working!"

"I'd _never _do something like that to you Em", he protested, his heart sinking down deeper. He knew he was going to drown soon. He was glad he had decided to stay back at home, who knows how he would have reacted on seeing them together? "I'm just looking out for you."

"I don't _need _you looking out for me." She scoffed, "Since when did you become a relationship expert? When did you have a girlfriend? When was your first kiss?"

"When was _your_ first kiss?" he countered. From the look of shock and complete loss on her face, he knew he had hit jackpot. His face twisted into a sly grin. "You didn't get your first kiss either, did you?"

She snickered, looking away from him. "Yes I did. It was with this day, at this place, and it was very romantic."

His grin grew wider. Holding her chin with his thumb and index finger, he forced her to look at him "Wow, not only did you not get your first kiss, you didn't even learn to lie properly yet!"

Her teeth sank into her lips. Her eyes burned with fire, flickered and glazed over as she contemplated what she was about to do.

...

...

Her anger and urge to shut him up finally won over her fear and hesitations, and she pressed her lips against his.

...

...

His eyes grew wide in shock, like balloons on the verge of explosion, even as he found himself kissing her back and melting into it. _So this is what it feels like to kiss an angel..._

...

...

Just when he was about to use his tongue, she pulled back from him.

"What was that about?" he asked, once he was able to catch his breath and make sure his brain was functioning properly again. His voice cracked, his eyes burned, his cheeks were red, his lips moist, his breath labored.

She was still in shock about how good it felt to kiss _him, _but managed to shrug and smile innocently, like what they did was regular normal routine between cousins. "Now you can't tease me about anything."

* * *

"Just so we are clear", Justin repeated while they were alone, making sure his voice was low and the kids couldn't overhear him from the other room, "While we are at the Beakerman's, no flirting, no teasing, no doing anything suggestive that might get us caught."

"Mmmm", she placed a quick kiss on his lips.

"What are you doing?" He hissed in panic, backing away from her, looking around to make sure no one saw what happened.

She shrugged evilly. "Just getting it out of my system... AMY! Come on!"

* * *

The Harper-Alex reunion went as expected. Hugs, whines, memories, catching up… usual best-friends-reuniting stuff. "Call me up when the date's over, I'll pick you up." Alex ordered her daughter as she sat down to chat with her best friend.

The date with Robert was a disaster. He didn't look as good as he did on the internet, he was dorky, he just wasn't her type. And though he had taken her to a nice restaurant, though he was sweet, nice, and cute, she just knew this wasn't working. There was no spark, no butterflies, no tingles, no excitement, nothing. When he leant in to kiss her (what happened to never kiss a girl on the first date?), her mind instantly flashed back to the kiss she had shared with Jonathan, and her heart raced. She pulled away. "Robert, I'm sorry, this, I…. we should break off."

Robert blinked, pulling his glasses up his nose. "Okaaay. If you say so..."

"I'm sorry… Good luck." Amelia offered him a strained smile, got up from her chair and walked out. She didn't feel like talking to her mother and hearing the "_I told you so_" then, so she texted Jonathan instead. "_Can u plz come n walk me home. Plz?"_

* * *

Jonathan wasn't shocked that he ran there as fast as he could. His eyes searched her face anxiously. "What happened? Are you alright?"

She nodded, strangely feeling a bit dizzy when she saw him so concerned. "I'm fine. I just broke off with him."

He hated himself when he felt glad to hear that, but he couldn't help it, it just hurt to see her with someone else. He looked down at the ground, finding it difficult to see her so broken, so miserable. "I'm sorry…"

She shrugged. "Whatever, I just want to go home…"

* * *

Alex found herself facing a lot of questions from Harper. _Why are you still single? Do you still like that guy you dated? What's his name? Tell us something!_ _You need to hook up. _She groaned, pleading Justin with her eyes to _do something_.

Justin let out a nervous, uneasy laugh. "I'm sure Alex will think about dating once she's settled down here. Now Zeke, how don't you tell her the story about how you named your son!"

Alex glared at him. _Really? _Less-torture instead of more-torture? How was that any better? _  
_

Zeke began enthusiastically. "You all know how much I _love _Robots. Robert sounded like Robot."

"In which language?" Alex mumbled under her breath, earning a "_Shhh!"_ from Justin.

"...So I named him Robert!" Zeke finished animatedly.

She really wanted to fall asleep.

* * *

Jonathan walked Amelia home quietly, keeping her close enough to him so that she felt comfortable, but far enough to be decent. They hadn't talked much after the kiss, and the awkwardness was growing. He decided to ignore it for the time being and focus on making her feel better. When they reached home, he offered to bake cookies with her.

"You know how to bake cookies?" she asked. For the first time, he noticed a glint of admiration in her eyes.

He found it difficult to nod. "Umm, yeah. We don't have a female in the house. So I like helping dad with the cooking."

She laughed, sitting down on a stool near the kitchen island. "Mom and I usually like to eat out. Pizzas are so yummy."

He rolled his eyes. "You guys are so lazy…." He chuckled, starting his work. Once the cookies were on the process of baking, he cleared his throat. "Umm, I need to do something. I'll be back in a while. You'll be alright, right?"

"Yeah, yeah", she waved him off.

* * *

Alex found herself stealing food from Justin's plate again. And Justin found himself slapping her hand away like he usually did. He knew it was a bad idea when their skins touched and he felt like he was on fire.

She shot him a secret smirk, catching on to his feelings. "I'm so tired. I can't _wait for tonight."_ She yawned and stretched, emphasizing the words.

He found it difficult to sit down and swallow the food in his mouth instead of taking her there and then. Why did she have to be such a tease?

* * *

Once he was away from her eye-sight, and too far for her to hear him, Jonathan took out his cell phone and texted his aunt. "_Don't worry about Amy. I brought her home safe. She broke up with Rob. Please don't start the 'I told you so' today. She's pretty upset." _ He texted his father, "_Baking cookies with your supplies. I hope you don't mind, dad. Will save some for you guys. Alex likes chocolate cookies, right?" _He texted Harper, "_Amy says she had great fun meeting you today. She's tired now, will call you ASAP." _He texted his grandmother. "_We are all doing fine, don't worry. I'll tell dad to call you up tomorrow, he got a bit busy today." _He texted Max. "_I need help. What movie does one watch to feel better after a break-up? Be serious, it's Amy." _And finally, he called up his best friend. "Hey man, are you alright?"

When he was done and turned around, he found Amelia right behind him, with the twinkle of admiration in her eyes again. "Wow. You're so responsible…. Dork." She mumbled, hugging him tightly. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, but hugged her back. "Thanks for having my back today", she mumbled again, her voice a sweet whisper now, "I was wrong. I do need you to look out for me."

He smiled. Now that his brain had betrayed him and was letting his hopes rise, he didn't mind drowning at all.

* * *

_"May our two winding roads_  
_Merge together here and become a rainbow_  
_Memory, I've been chasing this dream all this time, even if we go far away..._  
_ ...this love is sure to softly reach you"_

* * *

**A/N: This was getting too long as I decided to end the chapter here :P Yes I realize "**Once the cookies were on the process of baking," **is lame, but the kitchen and I have no relationship at all :P Hope you liked this chapter, I'm actually reading up articles on how to improve my writing just so I can write better for you guys! Please review and let me know what you think :) I'm having such a hard time keeping things T-rated! LOL  
**


	13. Ch 12: Walk at the same pace as always

**Chapter title and lyrics from "Akai Ito" by Inaba Koshi. **

**Chapter 12: Walk at the same pace as always

* * *

**

"_Just continue to move straight ahead…_

_I can't help looking at you._

_Whether or not I am beside you,_

_There is a red string that ties people together..."

* * *

_

Alex hated silence. She hated keeping quiet and thinking all sorts of crazy things in her mind. And silence was exactly what Justin was giving her on the drive back home. Sure, it was a comfortable silence, she knew he was happy, he knew she was happy, and sure, it was because neither of them really began talking, but seriously, could it get more boring than this?

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. _How can he still look so good? _She frowned, titling the rear-view mirror in Justin's car to the side and checking out her hair and make-up in it. She scrunched her nose up, wondering how Justin could keep his eyes fixed on the road when she looked that beautiful. "Dude! Why didn't you tell me there was mustard on my cheek?" she accused, trying to start up a conversation.

"Whoa! That is not a make-up mirror!" he snapped, slapping her hand away, and titling the mirror back into proper position, grumbling. "It's bad enough you'd never wear a seat belt. At least stay away from that and let me drive properly!"

She rolled her eyes, made a face and wordlessly mimicked him, all the while wiping away the mustard stain with a tissue. She tapped her hands on the AC, he slapped it away as well. She turned on the car perfume, and he grumbled. "Alex, I'm allergic to that!"

She scoffed. "Then what is it doing in your car?"

He shrugged. "Gift. Thought I should keep it here... it looks cool."

"Dork." She laughed. "Could you drive any slower?"

He shrugged sweetly, actually taking her words seriously. "Sure!"

"Oh God, no! Justin! I was being sarcastic!" she groaned in annoyance, kicking the front of the car with her feet, trying to hit the accelerator, but hitting his feet instead, which was also fine with her, since it made him groan. "Look, why don't you just let me drive?"

He puckered his bottom lip and furrowed his eyebrows together, as if he was thinking deeply about her suggestion. "Ummm, I don't know? Maybe because I don't want you to run my car into a tree?"

"I will not do that!" she said once, but gave up easily without fighting when she had a better idea. In the future they'd have enough time to fight over who was driving anyway. Right now, she could just tease Justin about his driving skills. "You're holding the steering wheel like it's a one-year old child!"

"So this is how you'd hold a one-year old child? I'm glad my kids are still alive." He retorted immediately, his timing perfectly matched his hers, like always. "This is the _perfect_ posture for driving."

"_Perfect posture for driving", _she mimicked dryly. "Just drive to the restaurant. I need to pick Amy up. It's pretty late. I don't know why she didn't call…"

"Maybe you should try calling her", Justin suggested. "I would, but I shouldn't talk on the phone while driving."

"Oh my gosh!" she whined, cursing the fact that she'd have to put up with the useless lectures that she loved to hate, for the rest of her life. She took out her cell phone from her purse, and saw Jonathan's text. "Oh. Nathan took her home already. She broke up with Robert. Wow this is a great day! Let's grab some drinks Justin!"

He started incredulously at the road in front of him, as if that was Alex, his mouth hanging open in unexpected surprise, "Aren't you worried even a little bit, Alex? Your daughter just had her first break off!"

"Which I have been waiting for forever." She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Amy's a strong girl. She'd get over it. She would have called me if she needed me."

He shot her a stern look. "Yeah, why didn't she call you?"

"Oh my gosh can we please stop talking about the kids now?" she whined impatiently, hating how the only thing they were doing was fighting over useless topics and discussing about their kids. _Oh my gosh, we must be getting old! _She tapped her feet on the floor of the car, trying to think of ways to turn the rest of the drive into a romantic date of her choice. After contemplating for just two minutes, because she refused to think longer than that, ever, specially when it came to anything about Justin, she turned on the stereo in the car, in hope of finding a nice song. Of course the universe didn't grant the wish. She frowned in irritation. "Wow I remember this song. Isn't this from the 60s?"

He glared at her. "My car, my music. Deal with it."

"Sure!" she nodded sweetly, running her hand along his arm. "Just like you'd deal with my music in my car."

His eyes widened at the idea. Listening to "uggg" while she drove a car recklessly…He shook his head to shake the image away. _This is such a bad idea._ He turned to look at her, and let out a nervous laugh. "We don't need two cars, do we?"

She shrugged, running a hand over the backseat of his car, rolling her eyes at the feeling of the soft towel. As much as she loved how comfortable it felt, why did he have to be so super-hygienic all the freaking time? "Sure... I don't mind if you sell your car."

His eyes grew wide. "I am not selling my car!" he screeched out in his panicked, scared tone, as if she was going to sell it right then. He swallowed twice and inhaled a mouthful of air, building up the strength and courage to say what he was going to say, and praying that she wouldn't kill him for it. "I was talking about selling yours..."

"Why not?" she shrugged again, playing along. They could try walking at the same pace, she would reach her destination anyway. "You drive me to the studio, you drive the kids to- oh come on, Justin! Are we really bickering right now?" she snarled impatiently.

He chuckled. "We bicker _all the time_."

"Yeah, but-"

"-_But _we are home now." He cut her off, smiling. "Come on." He skipped out, holding the door open for her.

"Okay, seriously, stop doing that for me," she snarled again, her mood perfectly ruined. "It's super-annoying."

"It's chivalrous." He snapped, rolling his eyes at her perfectly un-lady-like antics. Would she ever grow up? (Did he ever want her to?)

* * *

Justin knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer, keeping safe distance from Alex. As a result of his ability to read her like an open book, he had a pretty good idea about what she might try to do, and how that might land them both in endless trouble.

Jonathan opened the door. "Oh hi Alex, dad. Sorry I'm up past my bed-time. Amy and I were watching a movie on my laptop."

"Where's Amy?" Alex asked quickly, taking off her heels and throwing them to two corners of the room. "I swear I'm _never_ wearing those again."

Jonathan blinked. "Umm, she's in my room…."

Alex climbed up the stairs happily, taking two at a time. She sat down beside Amy, shoving her side with her elbow, smirking at her. "I told you so."

Amelia glared at her mother. "Really? Now?"

Alex grinned. "I know how annoying it was when my mom said it. I couldn't resist…. Anyways, you alright?"

Amelia shrugged, motioning for Jonathan to get inside. "I'm fine."

Alex grinned evilly and opened her mouth to speak.

Amelia beat her to it. "Go. Now. Please!"

"I'll be downstairs watching some TV then." Alex announced, placing a sweet kiss on her daughter's forehead and walking outside. "Goodnight honey."

She paused when she turned to Jonathan. The glazed look in his eyes told her he was thinking about his mother, how his mother would have wished him good night like that, if she was there. _Well, he may not know it, but I am his mother, so…_ She hugged him tenderly. "Goodnight sweetie."

He stiffened at first, but relaxed and hugged her back, suddenly feeling emotions swelling in his chest. "Goodnight, Alex."

* * *

"Is she alright?" Justin asked worriedly, as soon as she came downstairs.

"She's fine." Alex snapped, sitting down beside him, her lips curling upwards into a grin. "I told you so."

"Ha-ha", he said flatly, increasing the volume of the TV set, and stretching one of his arms out, inviting her to cuddle with him, which she gladly accepted.

"Baggage? Really Justin?" She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I wonder what your baggage would be. Oh I know! One. I play with my dolls-"

"-ACTION FIGURES!"

"-Two. I made up an alien language. And three", she paused, titling her head and looking up at him, like a lion looks at its prey.

He gulped, wondering if he really wanted to know. "A-and three?"

She bit on her lip, leaning in closer to whisper in his ears, as if this was huge secret that even the walls shouldn't hear. "And three. I sleep with my sister."

He flushed beet red. "It's not funny, Alex."

"Oh I didn't say it was funny." She laughed, trying to snatch the remote out of his grasp, but not succeeding. "Come on Justin! I don't wanna watch this crappy show!"

"This show is _awesome!" _he protested, glaring at her.

"Yeah, sure. Don't try to impress your dates! Tell them bad stuff about yourself and scare them off. Makes perfect sense." She snorted. "This will sound weird coming from _me_, but you know…. Once you fall in love with someone, you wouldn't really care about their flaws. I mean, I ended up with you, didn't I?" she chuckled, poking his side with her finger.

He shrugged. "Yeah, but you knew me from birth. You knew all my flaws before you fell in love with me. You accepted my flaws before you loved me. Which is the point of this show." He chuckled, "You just proved my point. Thanks Alex."

"Okay, now, I didn't _accept_ your flaws!" she defended. "I _am _going to throw your action figures away. Watch me!"

He made a mixture of grumbling and grunting noise in protest. "Why?"

"You are too old to play with dolls!" she snapped, hugging him tightly. "Now shut up dork, you're ruining my mood for the night."

He grinned. "That's the first good thing you said today."

"Justin", she warned in a low growl. Now he was seriously annoying her.

The silence returned, but this time, she didn't mind, because this time, she was in his arms, and could feel his breath on her head, could hear his heartbeat. Now wasn't this the sweetest thing in life?

"We need to talk", he said suddenly, turning off the TV.

She sat up in surprise, with a frown in her face, and alarm bells ringing in her head. Now what was he going to say? "Okaaay… Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, of course", he assured quickly, taking her hand in his and giving it a squeeze. "I was just thinking about joining work. I mean, I have been on vacation long enough..."

She breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank God it's nothing serious, it's just Justin being Justin. _"But I wanted to spend time with you!" she protested, hitting him with her puppy-dog pout. _T__hat should get him_…

He smiled. "We'd be together for the rest of our lives. Come on Alex. I think you need to get used to my work schedule if we are going to live together."

She grumbled reluctantly. "Fine. Go to work. Whatever. Like I care about you! I can totally stay at home all alone and… Justin please don't do this to me!"

He laughed, ruffling her hair. "Wow. You said please. I didn't see you drink today…."

She glared daggers at him. "I hate you _so much_!"

And suddenly, his hands were cupping her cheeks, his face was inches away from hers, and he was staring at her eyes with such intensity that for a moment she thought she would be blinded. "And I love you too, Alex…"

* * *

"_After laughing and fooling around,_

_I see a mature gaze I've never seen before…_

_It's OK if you don't say anything._

_Your feelings are not mistaken."

* * *

_

**A/N: yes this was fluff, but hey it was complete jalex, now all chapters are gonna be plot-driven :P I hope you liked it, please review! I can't thank you guys enough for all the lovely reviews. _Thank you_! :)**


	14. Ch 13: Just stay in my heart

**Chapter title and lyrics from Yokan by Heidi. **

**Chapter 13: Just stay in my heart

* * *

**

"_I grabbed your hand tightly_

_and started running, _

_without anywhere in mind_

_Please just stay in my heart,_

_Because I will always be watching over you…"

* * *

_

**One month later**

Rhythm. She realized that was what was missing from her life all these years that she spent alone, now that everything was back in rhythm, back in perfect sync with his every move. She had never loved her daily routine more.

**5 a.m**. Wake up to the sound of Justin calling her name, groan, grumble, curse whoever's name popped into her mind, sneak into her own room, fall asleep again.

**7 am**. Wake up for real, head down and eat the break fast that he fixed for her, all the while talking to him, and watching him work.

**7:30 am**. Iron his clothes for the day, because again, she forgot to do it the night before.

**8 am**. Wake Jonathan up and send him to the bathroom. Groan and whine while Justin watched the morning news.

**8:30 am**. Wake Amelia up and send her to the bathroom.

**9 a.m**. fix the kids breakfast.

**9:30**. Say goodbye to Justin as he heads off for work. Drive the kids to school.

**10. a.m.** Pick up groceries on the way back, get distracted on the way, and start buying chocolates for self.

**11 a.m.** Eat the lunch that Justin made for her.

**12 pm.** work on her art studio.

**4 pm.** Pick the kids up from school.

**5 pm.** Be a perfect hypocrite, or in Justin's words, a good mother- lock the kids in separate rooms, take their wands away, and force Amy to do her homework on her own.

**6 pm.** Call Justin and shout at him for not calling home enough times, even if he called her n times every hour.

**7 pm**. Start dinner when the kids finally start grunting about how late she always was.

**8 pm**. Make the kids eat.

**9 pm**. Sit in front of the couch with a vow that not even apocalypse can move her. Finally move when Justin comes home and fix dinner for him and self. Eat.

**Sometime during midnight:** sneak into his room and…

Life was perfect. _Too perfect. _

* * *

"I hate my new High school", Amelia grumbled, biting on the sandwich that her mother _made _for her, which tasted suspiciously similar to her favorite sandwich from the shop two blocks away.

"Why?" Jonathan raised an eyebrow, "Nobody bullies you."

"They better not! But they bully _you", _She rolled her eyes, deciding that Jonathan's sandwich tasted better than hers, and switching midway, ignoring his protests of how unhygienic this was and how this was becoming a routine. "I don't like defending you. It makes it seem like I actually like you! Ew!"

Jonathan scoffed, glaring at Alex when she tried switching sandwiches with him as well. "No one thinks you like me."

"Good", Amelia mumbled, rolling her eyes again, a habit she picked up from her mother. "If Justin teaches me to teleport, I'll make sure I send you away."

Justin chuckled. "I'm not teaching you then."

Amelia whined, but didn't speak anymore. She just kept stealing secret glances with her mother and Jonathan, waiting for them to signal when the right moment came. Today was the day when they were going to fight for their freedom to walk to school. For Amelia, it meant freedom from her mother's constant teasing and sarcastic comments. For Alex, it meant freedom from doing some useful work and more time to be lazy. She could drive to the grocery with Justin and fool around on the way. For Jonathan, well, let's just go with he didn't have a say in the matter.

"This tastes so good Alex!" Justin commented, taking a big bite off his sandwich.

Alex finally nodded her head at her daughter.

"So….. Justin…. do you mind if we walk to school on our own?" Amelia began, her voice dripping with deceptive amount of sweetness, her eyes fixed straight on his face in a way that made him squirm in fear. "You guys used to walk to school when you were our age. It's only fair we get to do the same!"

"That's because we didn't have a car." Justin reasoned, turning his head to look at Alex, seeing through the plan crystal-clearly, knowing very well that she was the master-mind behind this. "What can _possibly_ be more important than driving the kids to school?"

Alex shrugged. She knew that she'd be making Justin drop her at the grocery on his way to work. A drive with him would be fabulous. But she grinned playfully. "Sleeping?"

"TV!" Amelia added through a mouthful, her words half-coherent.

Justin glared at both of them, until he found Alex glaring back at him, and gulped, wiping his mouth with a tissue, this throat dry with fear of her. "I d-don't think I'll l-let this happen." he stuttered the words out.

The orbs behind her dark eyelashes darkened, and her evil laughter filled his ears. "So cute! You think I can't get something I want!"

* * *

"What makes him think I'm asking for his permission?" Alex fumed, pacing from one side of the room to another, while Amelia fumed on the bed. "Like I care about what the fuck he thinks! It's my life, I get to decide!"

"Calm down now", Jonathan tried reasoning. "This is not such a big deal! I don't think it's something you guys should get into a fight about….."

"No one asked your opinion!" Amelia snarled, instantly throwing a pillow in the direction of his face, and bull's eyes! She didn't have to see his stupid face anymore, not that it was covered with the pillow. "Like I give a damn about what the hell you think!" Then she sighed, looking at her mother with puppy-dog eyes. "So… are we giving up the fight?"

"Oh no, we are still winning", Alex replied, her eyes twinkling mischievously as she crossed her arms and instantly got an idea. "You just relax. Leave it all to me."

* * *

And the idea was perfect. She stopped sneaking into Justin's room at night, and kept waiting patiently for her plan to play itself out.

On the first night, he ignored it, angry and stubborn himself, not willing to give in to her demands so easily, especially when she was employing unfair means like this to get what she wanted. On the second night, he squirmed and squirmed in his bed, having an irresistible urge to slip into her room and end this, failing to get any sleep in the process. On the third night, he had to _take care of himself_, and now he was getting more and more desperate for Alex.

* * *

"I've gotta admit, your lair's pretty cool!" Amelia gushed, her eyes scanning through the books arranged so neatly on the shelf. _What was the name of that book mom once told me about? Forlorn spells? Nah… Forgiveness spells?... pssh, of course not, it's mom…right! Forbidden spells! Where is it?_

"Shhhh!" Jonathan scolded, trying to focus on the spell he was trying to get right. "Edgebono utosis", he muttered, multiplying his pen. He grinned at her smugly. "Now I'm 101 spells ahead of you."

She scoffed, joining him on the couch. "So what? It's not like we're gonna have a wizard competition! I'm the only child, I keep my powers. Why should I learn up spells?"

He opened his mouth to begin lecturing on how improper knowledge of spells was dangerous, but she shut him up by covering his mouth with her hand. She grinned sneakily. "Zip it, or I'll tell your dad that we snuck here at midnight."

He tried to protest, but his breath hitched at the feel of her palm on his lips. _Gosh! She will turn me crazy!_

* * *

On the fourth night, Justin couldn't take it anymore, he crawled into her room.

"This is so wrong, Alex!" he growled, slipping into bed beside her, getting angry again when she didn't move or didn't acknowledge his presence, even though he could see it very well that her eyes were open. "What does this have to do with driving the kids to school?" He waited for an answer, but when he got none, he continued ranting. "This is ridiculous! This is so silly, so childish! You are such a fool, you know that? When I suffer, you suffer too. Don't tell me you're not… Alex!" she grinned to herself, loving the sound of desperation growing in his voice. It was like chocolate ice-cream with chocolate cookies and chocolate milk-shake. She had to admit she was suffering too, but like her annoying P.E teacher kept telling her- no pain, no gain! Finally, her victory was announced when he sighed. "What do you want Alex?"

It was hard to keep the smile off her voice, but she managed to sound annoyed. "You know what I want."

He swallowed hard, still wanting to refrain himself from giving in, but finally, ended the fight within himself. "Fine, you get what you want. Now stop this!" he ordered, shaking her arms with force.

She grinned, finally turning around and looking at him, batting her eyelashes, pouting sweetly. "I had no idea you wanted me this bad Justin… Honestly, I thought you'd last a week at least."

He let out a low whine. "You don't need to tease me about this!"

* * *

"I know Jonathan knows the road well, but remember if you get lost, or get into any trouble," Justin began repeating his lecture, but Amelia cut him off, "-We'll call 911." she retorted sarcastically.

Justin blinked, "Ummm, I was going to say call me or your mom, but okay…."

"Ugggh!" Alex groaned, shoving Justin out of the house, into his car, getting inside herself, slamming the door in the process, ignoring his panicked gasp. "Okay kids, you can go now. Have fun."

And so they went their separate ways. But this just the beginning of the collision of their paths. If only they knew how twisted the facts of life were, how simple things could lead to things so complicated. This was the moment when the spark for the fire was ignited, a fire that would engulf all their lives soon…..

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews. I hope you liked this chapter. I have the next chapter ready, with jalex and Nathamy (dontcallmesweetie came up with this name). So review up, and I'll post it :D **

**Off-topic: I was so shocked to hear about the Tsunami in Japan. I'm so sorry for anyone who lost their loved ones! But be strong, and keep your faith in God (whichever religion you belong to). Life has to go on, no matter how hard it seems… My prayers go out to all of you.**


	15. Ch 14: Smiling at each other

**Chapter title and lyrics from Yokan by Heidi. **

**Chapter 14: Smiling at each other

* * *

**

And so it all began- the beginning of the end.

It all began as they began walking to school by themselves. "This is so awesome", Jonathan commented enthusiastically, an excited smile playing at his lips, a twinkle in his eyes, as he looked at the buildings around him, and at the same time, watched out for traffic, made sure Amelia stayed on the pavements. "You know, before you guys came along, I used to walk to school alone. Now, having you around feels…." He hesitated for a moment, to try to find a better word, but finally settled with what came to his mind, "good."

Her answer was a whine. "People are seeing me with you!" she complained, her eyes scanning left and right, even though no one they knew was there, "Now I'll be branded dorky too!" she stomped her feet, walking two steps ahead of him.

His lips tweaked into a smile. He knew her apathetic façade too well. He knew this was her unique way of saying she was glad about this arrangement too…. Why else would a lazy girl like her decide to walk instead of just taking a ride on a car?

* * *

"Alex, turn off the radio." Justin ordered sternly, tapping his hands on the steering wheel absent-mindedly in rhythm with the song playing on, as he waited for traffic to move again. "Seriously! This is giving me a headache! And I need to look after my patients well. I can't do that with a headache!"

She answered by turning up the music more loud, making his car vibrate with the beats, and earning a glare and shout from the car standing on the right, but who's paying attention to that? "I can't believe there are people dumb enough to go to you when they are sick!"

He snickered, eyeing her curiously. "Isn't somebody forgetting that she is one of them?"

She rolled her eyes, busy using the seat-belt as her air-guitar, knowing too well how much it irritated him. "Only because you are free and it saves Amy money for the rum….", her eyes widened when she realized what she had just let out, and her mind started working on getting out of it, "…age?" she winced. That didn't sound convincing enough!

He was so shocked to hear this that he hit the brakes of the car, even though the car wasn't in motion. "_You let her drink?"_ he yelled.

She bit her lip. Even though mad Justin was cute, she didn't really want to fight with him at that moment. "No?"

"_She's fourteen!_ _She's underage!" _He yelled again.

She laughed nervously, because, if he loved her, he had to find her nervous laugh cute! "Come on Justin! We just like to enjoy Girls' Night once in a while…"

"Once in a while?" he questioned sternly, glaring at her harder. His eyebrows were twitching with irritation, his breath was fast.

She squirmed under his strict gaze, wondering if it was a good idea to jump out of the car and run away. "You know, once in a month maybe…."

"Alex", he warned.

She sighed. "Honestly! Once in a month, and not every month! I think I let her drink twice or thrice in total."

"_Alex!" _He yelled incredulously.

"But, but, but", she began, running her hands over his arm to calm him down. "We didn't do it ever since we got here. And I successfully convinced her that alcohol sucks. She puked so much and had such a bad hangover; she said she'd never drink again! See, everything's great! I know we don't agree on most things, but come on, I've got unique parenting techniques!" she finished, grinning proudly at her convincing and truthful speech, but frowned when she realized that she had just used big words.

He glared at her even harder, starting the engine of his car with such a force that it almost scared her. "You are a _horrible_ mother." He accused coldly.

"Fine!" she growled. "I guess it's better to let your kids s sneak out and drink behind your back! Let them get wasted with some stranger in some strange place and do whatever they want and then come back home in the morning with a hangover and puking her stomach out with no memories of what happened the night before!"

He opened his mouth to say something, closed it when he couldn't think of what to say, and opened it again, managing to let out only a groan. "Why do you have to rationalize so well?"

* * *

Out of the blue, Amelia grasped his hand. Jonathan raised an eyebrow, "Umm, Em…. Is everything okay?"

She shrugged non-chalantly, twining her fingers with his bigger ones, "The traffic's scaring me. I'm feeling a little dizzy today…."

He chuckled, giving her hand a tug and pulling her with him, making her walk at his pace. "You know, if you want to hold my hand, you can just ask. You don't need to make excuses."

She licked her lips nervously, glancing at their hands, feeling her heart flutter. How could it be so frightening and so exciting at the same time? She broke the gaze, cursing herself under her breath for the weird things happening in her stomach. She forced herself to scoff. "Why would I _ever _want to hold your hand, you… sweaty pig?"

The insult didn't affect him at all, it knew that was their way of communicating. He chuckled again, his eyes rolling with the obviousness of the situation. "That's easy, because you have a crush on me, duh!"

She thought she could feel something burning, and vaguely wondered if it was her face. She managed to maintain her glare, a trick she had mastered over the years on her mother when they fought. _Oh God no, he can't know that I… what am I thinking? of course I don't… this is so crazy! _

He stopped in his track, making her stop as well, studying her face to see if he over-stepped. His heart raced when he realized that they were alone, and this close. _She's wearing strawberry again. I wonder if it's her shampoo or her gloss… _He shook his head. _No! What am I doing! This is my little cousin! I shouldn't be having… feelings for her? _

Her heart went on full over-drive when they froze, the world beside them blurring, the hisses of the people passing fading, the spotlight zooming in on the two of them. She stared at his eyes as he stared back at her, with a bizarre expression that she was beginning to see more and more these days. Something about that was drawing her in more and more. _I really want to… No! My mom. I love my mom! She would… I can't… _Even though she was reluctant, she broke the trance, untangled her hand from his and started walking ahead of him. "I don't have a crush on you!" she weakly defended, her voice so low that she wondered if he could even hear her.

He felt a tinge of disappointment when she walked away, his fingers curled into a fist to savor the last of her touch. He swallowed hard, trying to sound playful again. "So why did you drop love-letters on my locker?"

"It was a prank!" she hissed, glaring at the road ahead, and cursing her mother in her mind. "I got the idea from one of my _mom's stories._"

A surge of guilt shot through him when she mentioned her mother. _What am I doing! Having feelings for Amy! I'm going to hurt Alex…and my dad! What is wrong with me? _He sub-consciously drifted further from her, commanding himself to stop this before it went out of his hand. If only his heart would obey him, and his lips would stay shut! "Sure. Let's go with that till you run out of excuses…."

She was glad that she had her back to him and he couldn't see her blush. _Damn, he's right…I don't even wanna think of what will happen when I run out of excuses…_

* * *

"Yes, Justin, I got it, alcohol will cause the end of the world!" she roared, rolling her eyes and squirming in her seat, cursing herself for her inability to keep her mouth shut when needed. And anyway, this was Justin's fault! He was making a big deal out of something that happened in the past and wouldn't happen anymore….probably. "Gosh, you drink too! What about that?"

"I am not underage!" he spelt out the words to her slowly, like she was Max, which only made her squirm more. "And I don't drink too much. I drink only when I'm too upset."

"AKA when one of your patient dies", she snapped, wincing when she realized that her wording sounded harsh. "Sorry I didn't mean to be…." she shook her head resolutely, taking in a deep breath. "You know what? Now you don't need to do that! Now you have me. I can help you cope. Now what? Now will you give up drinking?" she challenged.

He smiled gratefully at her, taking one hand off the wheel and fondling her fingertips, "Of course."

She groaned in her helpless prison. "No! You were supposed to say no!" she whined, "And then we were going to drink together, get wasted, and role-play on the couch!"

He hissed at her, his face flooding with red paint. "I said it fifteen years back, and I'll say it again- we are _not_ having drunken sex."

She grinned. "Yeah, just like the kids are not walking alone to school right now."

* * *

"Please stay up for today's class, Amy, promise me!", Jonathan pleaded, as she leant on to his locker, and he took out his books. "It's really important."

She took a sip from her cup of coffee, tossing her slice of pizza in his locker. She knew his locker combination anyway! Who makes such stupid dorky songs? "You said you don't want me to make fake promises to you. And now you're asking me to promise! Make up your mind buddy!"

He sighed in defeat. He knew reasoning with her was like finding a drop of water in the ocean.

She grinned victoriously, flipping her hair, and started to walk away. That's when her eyes caught sight of Robert, staring at her. She froze when their eyes met. _This is just so awkward…_

Robert fidgeted. "Nathan! Come on we're late for class!" he yelled at his best friend.

_And it got more awkward. _Amelia thought to herself. _It's bad enough I'm falling for my own cousin, and now I'll be constantly reminded that he's my ex's best friend!_

Jonathan inhaled sharply when he saw Amelia frozen. "He was staring at me again", Amelia whispered into his ears, her eyes a bit fearful, her body language showing how uneasy she was feeling. It had his protectively feelings prominent. He put an arm around her shoulder tenderly. "Don't worry, I'm right here. I've got your back."

She nodded, allowing herself to smile thankfully at him, and quickly walked over to her class. When she reached the door and turned around, her heart swelled to see him still standing there, watching over her, smiling….

* * *

"_No matter what happens, I will never leave you_

_So don't stop, and don't be afraid_

_When you do turn around and look back at me_

_We will surely be smiling at each other…"_

* * *

"You are not buying _any_ alcohol", Justin repeated when he dropped Alex at the store.

She answered by slamming the door of his car open. She stuck out her tongue at him, grinning playfully and quickly placed a kiss on his lips. "I love you."

He tried his best to be mad and act sternly, but like always, he fell for this. After all, this was what he had longed for years; this was what he had dreamt of night after night. Every day, he kept wondering how she was doing, how she was feeling, how she was living. He wondered if she thought about him, if she missed him like he missed her, if she regretted any of the things that happened. And sometimes he wondered if she had moved on and he had been erased from her life. Every time they would talk on the internet, her eyes looked like they were made of stone- so immobile, so unreadable; he couldn't tell what she was thinking. Her face used to be hard, rigid, no emotions playing on them. He wondered if that was what had become of her, or if she was doing that to keep him from seeing how broken she really was. He couldn't decide which was worse, and which he feared more. Either way, his Alex was not with him, and a thousand questions and fears and thoughts about her clouded his mind.

And now he had an answer to all these. Now he had her. Now there was a smile on her face. He smiled back at her. "I love you too, honey."

"Honey?" She groaned at his cheesiness. "Justin you're wrecking it!"

He always wondered how they could get used to this bickering once again, how quickly they could leave everything behind in the past and pretend like none of that ever happened, like they didn't fall in love with each other and weren't torn apart by fate. But well, that was them. Justin and Alex. Why should he complain that his life was so perfect again?

* * *

"Did Justin call yet?" Jerry asked his wife impatiently.

Theresa shook her head. "No, but he called last night. Everything's fine Jer, you're being paranoid for no reason."

Jerry sighed, sitting down on the chair. "I met Professor Crumbs yesterday…. He thinks that the second curse may be in effect…."

Theresa frowned. "Wait, if the second curse works then the first curse….. That's impossible! I don't care what a stupid curse says! It's _Justin and Alex! _You know them better than that Jerry!"

"I know, I know", Jerry rubbed his forehead, "But they are together, _in the same house_…. Professor Crumbs fears that something can happen and tear them apart. Something horrible can happen to them… I'm worried about my kids, Theresa."

Theresa scoffed nervously. "What can possibly go wrong now?"

* * *

Jonathan smiled, opening the note that had been placed in his locker today, even though they both knew she was his secret admirer. A smile played on his lips as he began reading, but then his heart-beat became faster, his eyes widening.

"_Hey Jonathan, remember that one time I kissed you? Well, I was thinking…. well, you're not exactly as horrible as I thought you'd be… I mean, it wasn't so bad….. What's the harm, huh? ….. Wanna try it again? Just kissing, nothing more I promise. I don't wanna date you, ew… If the answer is no, pretend that you didn't get this note. And if it's a yes, sneak into my room tonight. Will be waiting till 11, because, well, I'm not gonna waste my nap time for you :P That'll give you enough time to think._

_Signed- you know who I am, don't you?" _

He licked his lips nervously as he folded the note and placed it back in his pocket, looking around to make sure that no one saw this. If anyone found out, they'd be dead. He gulped twice, looking down at his book absent-mindedly. Now that the girl he had a crush on had given him an open invitation, what was he going to do? Use this opportunity to try to get the girl of his dreams, or just throw it away because it was wrong and it'd hurt everyone else? Did he really want to do this to his father and Alex? He sighed in frustration. _What am I gonna do? What do I choose?

* * *

_

**A/N: this ended up being long. ****Oh yeah, review! :) thanks for all the love! **

** P.S. I'm working on the apocabigbang jalex. It's a one-shot, but boy it's 13000 words, and I need to polish it a bit more. If anyone wants to see the trailer, it's in my youtube (link in my profile) it's called "**_Tomorrow will not be the same_**". For the first time in my life I managed to create a decent vid/trailer XD I'd be back in April with it for sure. Meanwhile, I'll try my best to update this one and catch up with your updates/review them. ****This is my busy time of the year :/ **


	16. Ch 15: How much do I have to be hurt?

**Chapter title and lyrics from "Butterfly" by 12012**

**

* * *

Chapter 15: How much do I have to be hurt for this pain to disappear?  
**

All day long, Jonathan found his mind drifting back to the note and what he was going to do. One moment, his hands itched to unfold the note and read it once again, to see her handwriting and her words one more time, and then on the next moment, he had this urge to tear up the note and pretend like all his problems were over. He couldn't focus on anything else; his mind kept going over her words, analyzing and re-analyzing, like that would help solve the problem. Problem? Was this even a problem? Wasn't this what he had always wanted?

Jonathan sighed. Why did everything good in life come with a price? Why couldn't anything ever be simple, harmless? This was so difficult! He couldn't even look her in the eyes, and fortunately somehow managed to avoid her during lunch by making excuses of copying notes from Robert, studying, and the like.

Amelia was having second thoughts about her move all day, wondering if she had pushed too far, if she had made a huge mistake, but she was a pro at masking her emotions, and didn't let her fear show on her face. She kept wondering if he would reciprocate, or if she was the only one with these _crazy _thoughts inside her head. The anticipation was more complicated than she thought it would be. Her skin burned with sweat, her eyes gleamed with anxiety, and her throat felt like it was trying to swallow air full of blades. Her mind kept painting pictures against her will, pictures about what it would be like when he'd finally come to her and tell her that he wanted her. She couldn't even think about the possibility that he might turn her down. Those thoughts made her feel like... like her heart was suddenly heavy and her head was suddenly dizzy, like everything around her was spinning faster than her eyes could comprehend, and everything was turning to black, like... _like her life was over_. God, she was so twisted!

* * *

Walking home with her was another great disaster. Never before were they this close and yet this far away. There could very well be an invisible wall between them, something dividing them and repulsing them even further away. They wondered if things were going to be this way from then on. He wanted to talk to her, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea, or if that would increase their awkwardness, and so he decided against it. His lips set into a grim line, his forehead wrinkled as he tried to lose himself in thoughts of Math and History and that extra credit, but everything kept transforming to the image of her face. This was not going well at well.

She wanted to talk about something else, but no topic came to her mind that day, and she was scared that if she opened her mouth, the words "kiss me" would come out before she could even recognize them. Being around him was so unnerving. She thought that they could always get comfortable with each other no matter what happened, like... like her mom and his dad. But apparently, their bond wasn't _that _strong yet. It must have been because they weren't siblings like them...

And so they spent the whole twenty minutes in complete silence, occasionally stealing nervous glances at each other, but no one daring to speak, like there was an atom bomb ticking, and it would explode if even a single syllable was uttered. Sometime later, they could hear the tension in each others' breath, but pretended not to notice it. This walk just made things more awkward- She still didn't know what he was going to do. He still didn't know what he should do.

* * *

_"How much do I have to be hurt for this pain to disappear?_  
_My heart has been crying The gloom and rain of May_

_On the last train I draw a spiral going home in the hazy moonlight_  
_I've got to hurry I've got to hurry I really can't bear this..."_

* * *

When they got home, they both reached for the door-bell at the same time, and their fingers touched. They froze, like they were electrified, but pulled back their hands just in time before the door was answered. Jonathan shoved his shaking hand inside his pocket. Amelia busied hers in fixing her hair, only managing to make it messier.

Alex opened the door, grumbling. "Can't you just magically teleport to your rooms?" she snarled. "I was sitting down on the couch!"

Amelia snickered at her mother. "You are getting old and grumpy", she teased, and teleported away to her room before her mother could shoot back a retort.

Alex crossed her arms over her chest, glared at the spot where Amelia had been standing, and went back to sitting on the couch.

By then, Jonathan felt like the guilt was tearing him inside out. He couldn't meet Alex's eyes either, not with all the impure thoughts about her daughter in his mind. How could he think about doing those things to her! What would Alex do if she knew about this? Was she going to hate him? Kill him? Scold him? Never talk to him again?

Alex turned her head to look at him, shooting him a look of confusion. She wondered why he was still standing there. "Do you need something, honey?"

He barely managed to get a "no" out before he ran up to his room, and locked the door behind him, as if that would shut all the problems away. Of course it didn't, it just made him feel worse. Why did Alex have to be so nice to him all the time? Why did she have to remind him that he was thinking about back-stabbing her?

* * *

When he came face to face with his father after dinner, he felt like he was ready to vomit out all the sick feelings inside of him. His father's eyes were so trusting, with so much of love for him; his smile was so genuine. Even when he was tired after a rough day's work, he didn't forget to ask him how his day went and if he needed any help with anything. This was the way things had been ever since he could remember. His father always treated him like he was the only thing in his world. How could he ever think of doing something so... _disgusting_ behind his father's back, after everything he did for him?

"Dad", the words choked on his throat, clogged by so many emotions. His father was _everything _he ever had. He wanted to apologize for even _thinking_ about something like…_ this_. He walked up to his father, somehow managing not to bow his head and look at the ground. But his face had regret written all over it.

And then he gasped when he saw the distinct mark of lipstick on his father's throat.

Justin narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Huh? What?"

Jonathan opened his mouth, found that he was unable to speak in shock, shook his head, and closed it again. He blinked, certain that his crazy mind was imagining things now. But the mark was still there, it wasn't going away.

So it _was_ real!

He blinked a few more times to force his shock away. He never expected something like this so suddenly. It had to be some dream, right? He looked his father in the eye. "What's this?" he asked, pointing his finger at the spot.

Justin frowned, confused. He had no idea what his son was talking about. He went in front of the mirror that Alex had forcefully hung in the living room. And he saw it. The mark of her lipstick on his neck. He gulped. This was not happening! He had specifically told Alex not do get so reckless! He warned her not to do this! But she did. And she didn't even notice the stain! How could she be so careless? Now what was he going to do? What was he going to say? Should he use magic and wipe his son's memory away, like he had done so many times before, so many years ago? God, no. He couldn't. He hated himself for deceiving so many people that mattered so much to them, it was hard living with so much of guilt. And this was his son. Using magic to trick him was… _so wrong. _

"Are you seeing someone?" Jonathan asked, trying not to sound hurt. "I told you I don't mind if you date someone. I'm not a child anymore. I won't mind if you try to replace my mom. You deserve a life… But I thought you'd tell me at least."

Justin shook his head. He felt like huge waves were dashing towards him from all directions, and his legs were tied to the ground, not letting him run away and save himself. His brain stopped functioning. "I… I'm not dating anyone." He stuttered.

The look of hurt on Jonathan's face intensified. But this time, there was also a flicker of anger. All his days frustrations and questions and doubts somehow converted into a dangerous kind of fire inside him. He would never do anything wrong just because of his father, and his father couldn't even tell him the truth? He didn't say anything, he just turned away. He couldn't stand looking at his father anymore. Now when all his emotions were trying to dash out at once. He was going to blow some day, with so much of complication, so much of pressure.

"Nathan", Justin called out behind him. His eyes were gleaming with regret; his dry tone was drenched with guilt. "I'm sorry; I didn't want to put you in a situation like this."

Jonathan chuckled sadly. "Sure dad. You don't even need to tell me when you're marrying her. Just bring her home. I can probably move away with Alex."

"Nathan!" Justin scolded, "I am not marrying anyone, and I'm not bringing anyone home! Stop talking like that!"

"Then what can't you tell me who that was?" Jonathan growled, demanding an answer. He locked eyes with his father and waited. Waited, waited, waited... When he got no response, and saw his father flinch visibly, he gasped in realization. "Oh my gosh… It's my mom, isn't it?"

Justin felt the ground underneath his feet shake. Or was it his legs giving way? "I… It…"

"It _was_ my mom!" Jonathan concluded. His face lit up with a hopeful smile, and tears welled up in his eyes. All his hopes and dreams were now stitched together into a single thread. Maybe years of waiting was finally going to pay off? Maybe his parents were getting back together again? Maybe he would finally get to meet his mother? "Can I see her? Just once, please? Please, dad?"

Justin opened his mouth to draw in a mouthful of air. He was suffocating, almost on the verge of passing out. He was going to crumble all of his hopes. It hurt to breathe. "No. You can't… meet her. She has some restrictions…"

Jonathan's face looked like it was punched with two tones of bricks. His face fell, downcast with a gloomy shadow. "But I just wanted to see her _once_… is that so bad? Can't you arrange just _one_ meeting?" He whispered too softly, his voice low and broken.

It hurt Justin to say no and crush his little boy's heart, but he really didn't have a choice. Jonathan couldn't meet Alex, that would shatter everything and everyone. "I'm sorry…"

"Can I at least send her a letter? Please dad? Please?" Jonathan pleaded helplessly. Tears were flowing down his cheeks now, and his shoulders were shaking with his sobs. He buried his face in his shaking hands, and began whimpering and crying.

Justin didn't think he could take it anymore. This was killing him on the inside and out. He looked away, hiding his own tears.

"Shhh…." He heard a whisper in Alex's voice. He turned around to see Alex drawing Jonathan in a hug. "It's okay. It's okay… Everything's fine." she soothed, rocking him in her arms, like she did when he was just one year and still protected from the maze called life. Her face was burning with hurt and pain, and her eyes... her eyes looked like they were staring at some distant place. They had a strange look of sorrow, one that he had never seen before in all these years. The intensity scared him.

Her eyes closed as she felt Jonathan breaking down in her arms, and felt like she was rocking her little boy again, trying to get him back to sleep. She took in a deep breath to keep her own emotions under check. Now was not the time. "You can write to", she gulped, "_h-her_. I'll make sure Justin hands it to her."

Jonathan sniffled. "Thanks Alex."

When their eyes met, Justin was at a loss. He wanted to go there and comfort her, but he only glared at her for her recklessness. Alex glared back at him, mouthing a "it wasn't just my fault!", and looked away, focusing on her son instead. She made a promise to herself that she was going to change her ways, she wasn't going to be this playful and careless, not if this hurt her children. She hated herself for all the pain she was putting him through, for all the lies and questions she was making him live with. She never thought things would be this way. If only she had known these facts of life, before she fell in love!

* * *

All his life he had waited for this moment, but when he sat down to write the letter. His mind went completely blank. His pen wouldn't move an inch, not a single letter would come out. No emotions played in his heart. Or maybe too many emotions were acting all together and too many words came to him all at once. Either way, he was having trouble beginning the letter.

Once he managed to scribble down one line, the dam was opened, and his words and emotions kept flowing smoothly. By the time the letter was written, crumbled and thrown away, written, torn up, and written down again, it was already twelve at night. Jonathan frowned, suddenly remembering that he was supposed to go to Amelia's room. He was so absorbed about writing the letter, he had completely forgotten about her!

Well, not completely. He _had_ thought of a way to decide what he was going to do about her. But he completely lost track of time. Now he'd have to go and wake her up…

He could only pray this was going to be alright...

_

* * *

_

**A/N: phew! Long chapter! Yes, I finally updated :D hope you remember this story, and hope you liked it. You have no idea how many times I re-wrote this, it took a lot of effort, so please review. The next chapter is ready :D Actually, I split this chapter into two because it got too long. The cliff-hanger wasn't intended :P  
**


	17. Ch 16: Finger on the trigger

**Chapter title and lyrics from "Pistol" by 12012**

* * *

**Chapter 16: Finger on the trigger**

Amelia was still awake, sobbing in her bed. The countdown to 11 pm was so painful. She counted the minutes, the seconds, waiting for him to come to her room, growing more impatient by the second. She kept telling herself that he was going to come, he just needed a little more time, he would be here any minute now. But time ticked and the world stood still and he never came. It seemed like her clock raced to 10.59, and her heart was hanging on the edge of the cliff. The seconds' hand kept moving, captivating her eyes and holding her gaze, as she pleaded with it to slow down. But it only kept going faster, and before she knew it, it was eleven. Her heart was thrown off the cliff. She still didn't want to lose hope. Maybe he was late for some reason? Maybe he would still come? But she knew it in her heart that he was never late for anything- he just wasn't coming. She sank to her bed, feeling the emptiness surrounding the room and the emptiness inside her mind merge and become one. Rejection hurt so much more than she thought it would. She had cried so much, that there was now a wet patch on her pillow. She was sure that her eyes were red by then, but she didn't care. Nothing else mattered at that moment, just her pain and her loneliness. Sleeping was not even an option anymore- even breathing seemed to be difficult. The thought that Jonathan didn't want her like she wanted him… she didn't even want to think about it. Maybe that was the problem! What was she thinking? This was her goody two-shoes cousin! He would never-

And then she heard the soft noise of the creaking of her door. She quickly wiped her tears away, afraid it was her mother. The last thing she needed to do was hurt her mother. She knew that whenever she cried, her mother always found a way to blame herself. She wasn't going to let this happen this time, no, this wasn't her mother's fault in any way.

When she turned around, in the vague light seeping through the windows, she could make out the figure of Jonathan, and wondered if she was asleep and if this was a dream. But the sound of his footsteps, the shadow of his body, and the way he made her feel were too real. This had to be true, he had to be there. Her heart jumped up with joy, and she sprang up on her bed, a warm smile spreading through her lips. This was like a lost battle won suddenly, like getting an A on a paper where she had ticked random answers. "I had a feeling you'd come."

Instead of answering her, he turned on her bed-side lamp and handed her a piece of paper. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what it was and why he was giving it to her, but instead of questioning him about it, she quietly began reading in her mind.

"_Dear mom,_

_I have never met you and I don't know what you look like, but I love you. I miss you. I…. I think a letter is too short to say all the things I want to say. All my life I wanted to meet you and tell you everything in person. Maybe you can meet me someday? Please? _

_Anyways, I don't know if you ever wonder how much I have grown, or who I have become, but I am going to let you know. I am fifteen now, I'm sure you remember that. I'm five feet six inches tall because of my latest growth spurt. My hair's grown darker somehow, but I like to keep it short. I love studying, and I promise you I'm working hard to do well in life. I don't know what dreams you had about me, if you even had any, but know that if I knew, I would have surely made them come true. _

_I remember you every day, though I don't know anything about you. Every morning I wake up thinking that maybe today you'd come back to us, but I guess some things are supposed to stay in dreams. _

_If you wonder how life has been for me and dad, we're doing alright. I try to take care of dad as much as possible, but he never really lets me see his problems and his pain. Things are better though, now that Aunt Alex has moved in with us... She takes good care of me and my dad. When I look at her, I wonder if you are like her too, or if you are like me…. _

_I don't know if you think I was a mistake of your life, but thank you for not killing me. Thank you for giving me this life. I love my life. But it'd be so much better if it had you in it… _

_Every time I get into trouble, I ask for your help. You never answer, but maybe you can help me out this time? I want to ask you something mom. What if I do something that'll let everyone down? Are you gonna hate me? Do you want me to listen to my heart, or should I always do what's right? Please let me know. _

_I love you mom. I don't know if you have other kids, but if you don't, you can always come to me when you're old. I'm always here for you, no matter who you are and where you are. I love you and miss you._

_I'm sorry if this letter was clumsy. I have too much to say, and my thoughts are all getting jumbled up. Maybe tomorrow I'd wake up and realize I forgot to tell you something… _

_Bye mom. I miss you._

_-Your little boy, _

_Jonathan." _

Amelia frowned, handing the letter back to him and raising an eyebrow questioningly. Where did this letter come from?

"Dad met her. I can write to her." Jonathan stated briefly, reading her mind. He still hadn't recuperated enough to talk too much.

Her mouth hung open at the words. His mother was in the city? And he was writing to her? She glanced at the letter again. There was so much of emotion, so much of pain. She always knew she was hurting badly, but she never really realized that he was this miserable. And she never realized that it would trouble her so much to see him hurt so much.

She ran a hand through his arm. "I don't do sympathy, so tell me what I can do to make you feel better…" She whispered softly.

He shook his head, nodding a thanks at her, and rested his head on her shoulder, breaking down into tears again. She was the only one in a similar situation like his, and that made him feel that maybe she understood his pain. She began running her hands through his hair soothingly, trying to make him stop crying. Why did his bitch of a mother always have to find a way to hurt him? She wanted to kill her _so bad._

Once he was able to regain control of his mind, he began speaking. "I asked mom if I should follow my heart…." He trailed off. "Give me some time Em, I want to know what she wants before I can decide what I wanna do about you."

And finally she was reminded about the one thing that she didn't want to forget. She had been so absorbed in comforting him that the thoughts had escaped her mind. But now they were back. And now the pang of rejection had doubled. Now her eyes burnt with a perilous kind of fire. "You mean a woman who didn't give a damn about your life gets to decide what happens in your life? Brilliant! Makes perfect sense!"

"_She is my mother! She has every right to decide that's good for me!" _He hissed, yanking his arm away from her grasp. "And I'm sick of you talking shit about her!"

She blinked when she heard him curse. That didn't happen everyday. "I'm sorry", she stated in a dry and angry tone. She jolted up from her bed and dashed to the door, holding it open for him. "But I am not going to let her control my life. She's not _my _mother. She has no right to decide what happens in _my_ life. So just get the hell out of here!"

He looked up at her in shock. She had to be joking, right? He expected to see a sly grin on her face, or maybe even a look of hurt. But her face was as hard as a rock, showing no emotion expect bitter resentment. And that was worse than anything else she could have said or done. "Amy, I'm sorry, but you need to understand…. She's really important to me."

"Sure", she let out a bitter laugh. Her hair blew in the air, curly locks disturbing her face and her vision, just like her thoughts and emotions were disturbing her mind. It was a miracle that she could speak without her voice shaking. "Your mom is important to you. My mom isn't important to me. Maybe that's why I didn't take her permission before I decided to…" She shook her head, fighting back the lump rising in her throat, and let out another dark laugh, looking at the dark ceiling above. She didn't even want to look at him, partly because she was afraid that one look into his eyes would break down all her resistances. "I guess it's my fault to put you before my mom. My mom's the only one who's ever really cared for me. I shouldn't have…"

"Amy, please", he pleaded. Now she was making him feel bad. This was such a difficult situation for him. He was caught between so many tug of wars. There were so many voices in his head, pulling him in so many directions. He thought he was going to go insane, if he already hadn't.

"Leave" Amelia repeated firmly, brushing off the weakness that was crawling inside her. Every second she spent with him was making her weaker.

He sighed, and got up, his legs feeling heavier than ever, seeming like iron bars attached to the ground underneath. He paused when he reached her. She was looking away, refusing to meet his eyes. "Amy…"

She still didn't reply. He felt a tremor of fear rush through him. What if he was losing her forever? What if she never talked to him again? What if she was cutting him away from her life forever? What if he never got the chance to be with her again? Did he want to do this? Did he want to end this? And did he want to break her heart?

.

.

.

The wind blow. The clock ticked. Music drifted in from some distant road...

.

.

.

Time stood still. Their hearts started beating faster and faster and faster...

.

.

.

He took in a deep breath, making up his mind. And then there was no turning back. He was holding her by her shoulders and kissing her hard.

At first, she was stumbling back, taken aback by his sudden spontaneous action. Then she steadied herself, and kissed him back, pouring all her emotions into it. This was so much more than a simple crush… and this was just so wrong.

He felt relieved when he felt her respond, relieved that everything was alright. Maybe he could just kiss her today and kill himself tomorrow? He surely wouldn't mind, if he got to pour his emotions out like this….

"_Can't say goodbye, what do you see? A lie on the truth or..._

_Finger on the trigger..._

_Can't say goodbye, what do you see? A lie on the truth or... _

_The smoking gun…"_

* * *

Suddenly, Alex sat up in her bed, staring into the darkness in front. She was zoning out, her vision blurring, and her heart began pounding uncontrollably. She felt like there was some monster lurking in the darkness, something that was going to shoot out an arm any second and grab her away. Justin groaned when he felt that the hand that was around her waist was moved with a sudden force, and opened his eyes to see her sitting on the bed. "Alex?" he mumbled sleepily, but with worry in his voice.

She turned to look at him, her eyes twinkling with fear. "Something's wrong, Justin. Something's _terribly _wrong."

He narrowed his eyebrows and sat up too, rubbing her back as he did. "What? What are you talking about?" he whispered softly, running his hand through her hair. "Calm down, Alex. You're home. _With me_. Everything's fine."

She shook her head stubbornly, and began crying frantically. "Something's really wrong, Justin. I know it. Please believe me! Something's wrong with my…. my kids. I can feel it."

Justin frowned, glancing at the clock. "Alex, it's 12. 48 at midnight. The kinds are in their room, sleeping. Everything's fine."

She yanked herself out of his grasp angrily and rolled away. Why couldn't he understand? Why didn't he feel it too?

"All right, all right!" he held up his hands in the air in surrender and picked up his shirt. "I'll go and check on them." He cupped her cheeks, tucking her hair behind her ears, "You stay here and relax, okay? I'll be back in a while."

* * *

Theresa woke up with a scream.

Jerry jerked awake at once, startled. "Theresa? What happened? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

She just shook for a few minutes, her whole body trembling with fear. She clutched a hand close to her chest, and looked at him fearfully. "I think you were right, Jerry. Something's wrong with my kids. I can feel it….. Please check on them!"

Jerry winced, glancing at the clock that read 12.50. "Ummm, now? Don't you think they are sleeping?"

All she had to do was shoot him a glare. And he was up and dialing Justin's number.

* * *

Justin made his way through the living room, wondering if it was a good idea to leave Alex all alone. He was sure that she was having nightmares, but it still troubled him to see her cry like that. He wanted to get back to her as soon as possible. He hurried up the stairs, making as less noise as possible.

He had almost reached the rooms, when his phone rang loudly. He jumped up in shock at the sudden sound, almost getting a heart attack. He frowned when he saw his father's number. Was something wrong with their parents then? He answered the phone with a fumbling hand. "Dad? Is everything okay?... Really?" He frowned again, wondering if he should tell him that Alex had the same feeling, but decided against it. Why scare the poor old souls? "Everything's' fine, dad. Don't worry. Alex is…. In her room, I'm sure. I'll go check on her. Don't worry. Call you later."

He sighed, feeling guilty for the lie he just said. But he pushed it all aside, right now, he was just worried about his kids. If Alex and his mom had the same feeling, something had to be wrong. And magic had to be involved, that had to be the reason why they sensed something. He resumed walking again, almost running now. He reached Jonathan's room and turned on the doorknob. It was dark inside, but he could make out a figure with dark-hair sleeping in the bed. He sighed in relief to see that his son was alright. He quickly hurried to Amelia's room. He was relieved to see her figure on the bed as well. He smiled to himself, and closed the door again.

But he couldn't brush off the feeling. Something had to be wrong, something had to be- His heart leapt to his throat when he saw the tip of his wand burning with a speck of light. He held it close to his eyes, examining it carefully.

So did it mean that there was some magic working on…. _him_?

* * *

As soon as they heard his footsteps disappear down the stairs, they let go of the breath they had been holding. Amelia stepped out from under her bed-sheets, while Jonathan crawled out from under the bed.

"That was close!", Jonathan mumbled, twisting his wand in the air. "Thank goodness I could finally master the Edgebono utosis spell."

She huffed. "You bet!"

They had been kissing each other, completely unaware of everything else, when they had heard their father's phone ring. Just outside their room. Jonathan had panicked immediately. But Amelia was calm enough to think of a plan. She decided that he'd use magic to create a duplicate in his room. She would pretend to be sleeping, and he would hide under her bed. They didn't think this would work, but luckily it did.

Jonathan looked at her seriously. "We have to be more careful next time, Amy."

She grinned evilly. "How do you know there's gonna be a next time?"

He grinned back. "Because of this." And then they were kissing again.

* * *

Justin returned to the room, to find Alex still sitting in her bed, her muscles tense and her face taut, but her eyes fixed on the door. She immediately scanned his face. He gave her a reassuring smile, and sat down beside her. "The kids are sleeping, everything's fine." he soothed, and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead. He did not want to tell her about his wand at that moment, that was only going to scare her more. The uneasy feeling still kept nagging him, and it intensified when he saw the light on his wand grow brighter as he pressed a kiss on Alex's lips. What in the world was going on?

She only nodded and forced a smile on her lips. Why wasn't this nagging, disturbing feeling going away? Why did it still feel like something was terribly, terribly wrong? She clung on to him tightly, and closed her eyes, only focusing on him and trying to guarantee herself that he was there with her.

Why did it still feel like something was trying to rip her whole world apart?

* * *

**A/N: Now you see why I split this up. Hope the drama didn't get too over-the-top. This was a SUPER-LONG chapter. And my patience os SUPER-small. Please review, it feels good after all the hard work :) thanks for all the reviews :) in next chapter, Alex will read the letter, so yeah, it's all jalex. And another surprise also awaits. Next chapter is ready. XD**


	18. Ch 17: Crumbling to pieces

**Chapter title and lyrics from Fast Forward by Monkey Majik. **

**Chapter 17: Crumbling into pieces **

* * *

"_When I tried building a world that I hadn't seen,_

_It crumbled into pieces…" _

She had never liked morning so much before- hey, who wants to get up when you can be lazy under the blankets?- but at that moment, the light somehow seemed to be reassuring, as if it had driven all of last night's fears and worries away. She let out a soft sigh and turned to her side to-

And she found that Justin was already gone. Of course, he didn't wake her up when he got up to let her catch more sleep. She smiled, got up, got dressed, and made her way down the stairs. Last day's anxiety had vanished completely, the new day seemed perfectly normal, just like any other day- well, as normal a day can be in their lives that is, since they are not normal people. She wasn't scared anymore, yet, she was still holding her breath when she made her way to the breakfast table. She hadn't seen her kids since that horrible feeling last night. She should have gotten up and checked on them herself. She felt relieved when she saw her kids were sitting down and eating. She let out the breath and sat down on her seat, mumbling a 'good morning'. She couldn't help it if she sounded cheerful today. After last night, she was genuinely happy that everyone was okay.

"So…. Here's the letter." Jonathan mumbled stiffly, handing it to her. He still wouldn't look at his father. Justin wouldn't look at him either. They sat away from each other, facing away all the time. It was clear that they weren't talking; she could clearly sense the growing tension. So maybe that was what was wrong? Maybe that was what was bothering her last night? She could only hope it was that simple.

She only nodded at her son, placed the letter by her side, and began eating. Break-fast was completely silent that day- Amelia decided that texting was a better option than talking, Justin found the morning newspaper more interesting than before, Jonathan lost himself staring at the food, and Alex was busy rolling her eyes at all of them. Even with no one talking, it took them longer to finish eating than it usually did.

Alex felt the tension crawling back under the skin the minute they opened the front door and stepped outside the house. She suddenly realized that they would be going their separate ways, and the kids would be out of her eye-sight. A sharp breath was her involuntary response. She was feeling nervous again. "Be careful on the road", she warned her kids, hugging them tightly.

Amelia raised an eyebrow at Justin, silently questioning him about why her mother was acting so weird. She figured he'd have to know, he seemed to read her like an open book.

Justin sighed and mouthed the word "nightmare". Amelia rolled her eyes.

And then they were sitting inside his car, with him starting the engine, while she stared out of the window till she caught the last glance of her kids. Once he was driving and they were far enough from their home, she began speaking, "What's up with you and Nathan?"

Justin's jaw tensed, but he kept up a brave face. "You were there yesterday, weren't you?"

Alex sighed. "You should go apologize to him."

"Apologize?" he asked incredulously, sending her an open-mouthed wide-eyes glare for two seconds. "Why will I apologize? It wasn't my fault! It was _your _fault! You're the one who should apologize!"

"I made it up to you last night, didn't I?" she hissed through gritted teeth. Justin was getting better at holding a grudge. "Fine, when I write back to him, I'll tell him to be extra nice and respectful to his dad." That's when she remembered about the letter. She took it out of her purse, with fumbling hands, and drew in a deep breath. She had no idea what he had written, what was inside, and how that would affect her. Was she even ready for this? She mentally scolded herself, no more backing down. She had to do with. With that thought in mind, she took out the letter and smoothed it out, her fingertips trailing over his neat yet childish handwriting. Just as she was about to read, Justin hit the brakes harshly.

She was jerked forward, her head hitting the glass pane in front, and for a second she _almost _regretted not wearing a seat-belt. But thankfully, when she examined herself in the mirror, she saw that there were no bruises, mere pain, and she was basically alright. "Justin!" she yelled, hitting him hard on the shoulder.

He didn't answer; he just kept staring at the road in front.

Alex felt that uneasy feeling sticking to her skin again. The way his eyes were fixed on the road made her blood freeze in fear. She was afraid to even follow his gaze, but she did anyway, and realized that this road they took was unusually empty today, with no other vehicle or human in sight. Except for someone right in front of their car- some old lady wearing dark black clothes and a wizard's hat. _An old witch_, Alex understood easily. She shot Justin a nervous glance. He matched it with his own nervous look. They had both heard their father tell them how powerful and how dangerous they were. They knew that the best option was to just give in. War was the last resort. They both got out of the car silently, and came face to face with her.

"Let me do the talking", Alex mumbled to him. "Hi, can we help you?" she asked cheerfully.

A cold chill ran down her spine when she saw the hostile look in the witch's eyes. But the look wasn't directed towards her, it was directed towards Justin! Her heart leapt to her throat, and the sick feeling kept escalating. "Justin!" she cried out, feeling almost helpless, and hugged him tightly, standing in front of him, like a shield. She wasn't going to let her hurt him!

Justin stood still and stiff, suddenly unsure of everything. Was it even a good idea to get out of the car? He gently pushed her aside, to his right side. If they were going to fight, they were going to fight side by side.

"You", the witch accused, pointing a finger at him. The crooked nails freaked them out. "How did you do it?"

Justin frowned. He didn't understand a thing. "Do what?"

Alex frowned too, wondering if the woman was crazy. Or was it some insensitive TV show? She wished they would just get the hidden cameras out from the bushes… or something! "I think you've got the wrong guy." She said fearfully.

"No!" The witch growled at Alex, making Justin tighten his arms around her. The witch glared at his hands then. "You broke my curse. My curse didn't affect you at all! You did not fall for her because of my curse! You fell in love with her!"

It was like the tempo was slowly picking up, like a curtain was slowly being drawn from the screen, like a secret was coming out- just a little bit. Justin licked his lips nervously. "What curse? What are you talking about?"

The witch gasped, looking up at him in alarm. She looked like she was unsure whether she should believe him. "You mean, he didn't tell you?"

Justin's fingers tightened around Alex's reflexively. He felt her squeeze them back in response. "Who's he?" He stuttered, almost afraid to even ask, unsure if he wanted to know. "...Hello?"

He stared in front of him, but the witch had already vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye. In her place was only smoke and emptiness. Justin and Alex glanced at each other fearfully. What was going on?

He cupped her cheeks, and breathed in deeply, quickly scanning her for injuries. "Are you alright?"

She could still breathe, hear, see, and speak, so she nodded. "I think so…. What about you?"

He didn't reply at first, he moved away from her and said down on the bonnet of his car, gesturing her to join him. She obeyed, but not without raising an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"I don't know how to tell you this", his voice was different than it usually was, almost pained, almost frightened, "But I think I'm under some sort of curse."

Alex felt the world stand still when he said the words. He was under… "A curse?"

He nodded with a tilt of his head. "I figured it out last night when I…."

* * *

"Justin, I'll be fine", she whined, even though she trailed behind him. Honestly? She really did not want to be home alone today. Now after her encounter with the _crazy _witch. Being with Justin made her feel safer. Besides, she was worried about him too. She didn't want to leave him alone, in face of possible danger. They had to figure out what was going on, and soon.

"No" he scolded stubbornly, and dragged her to his chamber. "Hey, Liz", he greeted the nurse working there. "This is my sister, Alex. I'm afraid we got into a little trouble, and she has to stay here today. I hope that's alright?"

Liz eyed Alex once, but then shrugged. "Sure, you're the doctor. It's your call."

Alex faked a yawn. "Now I'll be bored all day!" she sat down at a corner, and grabbed a magazine. "Ew!" she tossed it away when she saw that it was a boring medical journal. Now what was she going to do? How was she going to kill time?

Then she remembered about Jonathan's letter. That would be a good way to distract herself from all the things going on. She quickly took it out of the purse again. she paused a while before she read it, as if waiting for the witch to appear, like she did last time she tried reading it. But she was relieved when nothing happened, she finally began reading.

Every sentence stung somewhere deep in her soul, every word made her heart resonate in pain. Her veins hurt, her blood boiled, her eyes burnt with tears. Why did she have to put him through so much pain?

She was finally confused when she reached the part where he asked if he should follow his heart. Why should he even ask something like that? Of course he should follow his heart! She sighed, and decided to write back her answer. "Justin, do you have a paper and a pen?"

Justin stared at her incredulously. "Are you crazy? Look at yourself!" he scolded. She looked at the mirror in her purse to realize that she was looking really tense, almost ill. So that's why the nurse gave her that weird look!

"You are not writing anything today." He said with authority in his voice, "No, not today, Alex."

She grumbled. She could see in his mirror just how vulnerable she looked. She was feeling vulnerable as well. She just wanted to curl up in her bed with chocolates and music…. And Justin. God, she needed him so much!

She sighed. "No, Justin. Jonathan is waiting for an answer. I need to write back to him now…. And you need to magically transform my handwriting or something." she finished, snatching his pen away and tearing up a paper from his personal note-pad. "Thank you" she mumbled in a sneaky tone, before she began writing back.

"_Nathan, _

_I don't even know what to tell you. I'm not really good at this talking things out thing. _

_I'm sorry. For everything. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Your father and I were reckless… But I'm glad it did. I'm glad you came to my life. You were the best thing that happened to me. And giving you away from me was just so hard. You'd never understand what I went through to do that._

_I miss you. But I've always kept myself informed about what was going on in your life. You don't know me, but I know you. Maybe you'll know me someday…. But not quite yet. _

_I know you have a lot of questions about my life, how I am doing and all that. I'm okay, I guess. Been better since I came to this town and saw your father. God I still love him so much! You must be wondering why we aren't happily married then? We can't. That's all I can tell you._

_And no, I am not married to anyone else either. I'm single. I don't think I can tell you more about myself…. As for you, you are precious. I love you, no matter what. So you should always listen to heart. Don't worry so much, just do what you wanna do, do what feels right. If you need help, you can always go to your father. He extra nice and sweet to him, don't ever fight with him._

_I know I've never been there for you, but Justin's always been there. Trust me, even if I was living with you, that's the way things would have been. Even I went to Justin with all my problems… I still do. He's a pro at- Oh God I'm ranting about him again! Sorry! _

_Anyways, I don't know what else I should say…. Just take good care of yourself. I love you just the way you are. _

_Your mom." _

"Okay, I'm done", she announced, folding up the letter, placing it inside an envelope, and handing it back to Justin, as she wiped her tears away. "Now his royal highness just needs to give it to his son." She mocked.

Justin shook his head. "Oh no, not till I check what you wrote. I don't trust you with kids."

"What!" she yelled. "I can be trusted!"

He huffed. "Sure." And then he began reading the letter before she could protest.

She sat back at her chair quietly, waiting for his opinion. When he finally nodded at her, she felt relieved. Now there's a start….

* * *

"We have a problem, Jerry", Professor. Crumbs' voice rang in his secure chamber. "Something is breaking the curse."

Jerry made a face. "What do you mean breaking the curse? I thought you said the curses were permanent?"

"Yeah, I know, but…." Professor Crumbs sighed. "You may want to sit down for this."

"Okay…." Jerry said uncertainly, propping down at a chair nearby. "So….?"

Professor Crumbs sighed again. "One of our monster hunters acquired the witch's wand yesterday. It turns out that the witch's curse never even worked in the first place. I don't know how that's possible!"

Jerry laughed nervously. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

Professor Crumbs looked away. "I don't know how to tell you this…. Jerry, the second curse is working."

Jerry looked confused. "But you just said that the first curse didn't work?"

"When I placed the curse I never said that it would have to work only if the first curse did, did I?"

Jerry was more confused, almost feeling like Max. "I have no idea what you are trying to say."

Professor Crumbs groaned under his breath. He had to spit out the bitter truth now. "Justin is in love with Alex. Maybe Alex is in love with him too. Either way, my curse is trying to rip them apart. If they don't move away from each other _now_, something terrible may happen."

Jerry stood still for a while; to let the words sink in, make sense- to believe the words that was just said. So Justin did fall for Alex, but not because of the curse? And now something was going to happen to them? "What will happen to them?" he asked fearfully.

Professor Crumbs shrugged. "I don't know. Magic does whatever it wants. You should warn them before it's too late."

Jerry hesitated a bit before he laid his next question on the table. "What if they don't listen to me? You know how stubborn Alex can be…. is there any other way out then? I mean, the first curse was broken. Can't they break the second curse?"

Professor Crumbs thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It's a miracle that the first curse didn't work. Perhaps it was because of their real feelings for each other… It'll take another miracle to break the second curse. They can only survive it if something else is powerful enough to cause a miracle."

Jerry stared blankly in front of him. "Something else?"

* * *

**A/N: there you go. I **_really_**hope the story is getting interesting? Please review and let me know your thoughts/comments/complaints**

**Oh and silver phoenix, don't know if you're reading this, but it was great to get a review from you after a long time, buddy :) Thanks to all the anonymous reviewers! :) **


	19. Ch 18: Can you blow away your hesitation

**Chapter title and lyrics from Ayakashi Night. The "rubber-band" analogy is stolen from **iheartdisney**. Well, **_technically_** borrowed since I have her permission :P**

* * *

**Chapter 18: Can you blow away your hesitation**

If there was one lesson Justin learnt in his life, it was this: never bring your evil sister to your work place.

Because all the time Alex was in his private chamber, she made his work impossible by commenting on every pretty female patient that visited him. Sometimes the patients stared at her awkwardly, sometimes they just shook their head and laughed, sometimes they glared at her, and sometimes the anger was misdirected at Justin. He was so embarrassed! He would have been kind of flattered if he thought she was being jealous and possessive of him, but in their thirties and as parents of two teenage kids, he _knew _they were over that a _long_ time ago. Alex was just doing this on purpose to cause misery to him, like she had been doing her freaking whole life! How inconsiderate!

"I was really bored, okay?" she defended herself. As if that was a good enough reason to scare innocent people away!

* * *

The fighting continued when they came back home. This was inevitable- they hadn't had a fight for a really long period of time, and their lives were so messed up, they were so scared, all they could do was take out their anger on each other.

She slammed the door open as he ranted on and on about how selfish she always was. She hit him hard on the head as she yelled back a reply. The yelling continued, escalating to a level where they thought the neighbors would call the cops, but both of them were beyond the point of caring by then. The fighting wasn't even over when their Justin's phone rang.

"What? Now you're going to answer a call in the middle of a fight?" she yelled incredulously at him. "I thought you'd be satisfied after you answered that call last night at bed!" Now the topic was deviating. They just knew they were angry, the original reason for the fight forgotten.

"That was a sick patient! I'm sorry for being a good doctor!" he yelled back as he took out his cell phone from his pocket. The ring tone seemed so annoying to him, in the midst of the fight. "And this is dad. I need to answer this!" he pointed his index finger at her as a warning to stop her yelling for the time being, and breathed in deeply to make sure he sounded calm enough. "Hey dad…."

"Justin…" Jerry's voice shook as he licked his lips. "Is your s-sister there?"

Justin looked at Alex in confusion. "Yeah, she's here… Alex, what did you do?" He accused, glaring hard at her. Why was she always causing so much trouble?

"What!" she yelled again, grabbing a paper weight from the table- the closest object at hand- and throwing it all on the floor, shaming it to pieces, and stomping her feet over the shattered pieces angrily. _"You suck!"_

"Put the phone on speaker Justin…." Jerry ordered calmly, ignoring the fighting sounds he could hear in the background. He was so used to Justin and Alex fighting all the time, it was kind of like a cup of coffee in the morning to him now.

Justin was more confused now, but he obeyed without asking more questions. "Okay. We're on speaker now."

Alex crossed her arms over her chest, fuming. She didn't even want to see Justin's face right now, let alone stand with him in the same room and attend the same call with their father!

"I want you to listen to me carefully", Jerry began. His voice was shaking again. He wanted to stop, he didn't want to say it, didn't want to believe it yet, but he knew he had to go on, for their own good. There was no easy way of saying this though. He had to bite his tongue to get the words out. "I know that you and Alex are dating."

It was like a hammer suddenly struck her heart. Her body shook at the words. What did he… How could he…. Why would he…. What were they… _Oh God no_!

Justin felt terror sweeping through him at once. So this was finally happening. The worst had finally happened. He didn't want to believe this was happening, but it was, and he knew what he had to do, he had thought about this way too many times. He wasn't the sneaky one, but he knew denial was the best option. "What are you talking about? Dad, are you-"

"-Don't." Jerry cut him off harshly. "Don't even bother Justin. You've played behind our back long enough. Now you need to stop."

Alex found herself shaking her head involuntarily when she heard the words. _No, no, no, no, no. Just no! _

Justin gulped. His mouth felt dry as he struggled to say the words. "Or else what?"

Jerry was shocked to see his perfect little son challenge his decision. So he _was_ ready to destroy everything for Alex! No wonder the curse was working! "If you guys don't separate _now_, the curse is going to break you apart."

Another stroke of hammer echoed through Alex's heart at the mention of the word curse. Was this the curse that witch was talking about?

Justin felt the colors being drained from his face. "What curse?"

Jerry sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Before you were born, an evil witch placed a curse on you, saying you'd fall for your sister. So I had Professor Crumbs place another curse to tear you apart. And now it's working."

Justin breathed in heavily, his chest rising up and down rapidly. Now everything made sense, all the things that had ever happened to them. All these years, this stupid curse was tearing them apart. This curse had been destroying their whole lives! As if they _already _didn't have their share of problems with dating each other! He felt so much of anger course through his veins, he couldn't even speak anymore.

"Justin….?" Jerry asked impatiently. "Alex? Are you there honey?"

"Don't call me that!" Alex exploded, she had lost it. The first words she spoke to her father came out as a shriek. "You're not my father! You're a monster! You're just destroying my life!"

Jerry closed his eyes to breathe in. "Alex, I was just protecting you. I didn't want Justin to have his way with you."

"You thought Justin would…?" her words trailed off as she stared at the phone in disbelief. How could he even _think _that Justin would do that to _her?_

"Because of the curse, honey", Jerry reasoned. "I had to make sure you were both okay."

"All you made sure was that you destroyed our lives!" Alex shrieked again.

Justin placed his arms on her shoulder to calm her down. "Alex, get it under control." He whispered softly, rubbing her shoulders.

She finally broke down into sobs in his arms. She placed her hand over his and held on tightly. "You just kept tearing me and Justin apart." She accused her father.

"What else do you expect me to do?" Jerry snapped at last. This was so twisted! He couldn't even tell his wife about this, she'd be so hurt! "Don't you know what you guys are doing is wrong in every way? You have to stop!"

"No!" Alex shrieked again, stomping her feet and trying to squirm out of Justin's grasp. "Justin and I love each other. We are _not_ breaking off. I don't give a damn what you think. And I _don't care_ what will happen. I won't let _anything_ tear us apart!" her words came out at a million words per second, but they were firm, like a bullet breaking through the strongest shield.

"Alex, shhhh" Justin whispered softly, hugging her so tightly that she could feel his heart beating against hers, trapping her in his arms so that she couldn't break away. "It's okay. I've got you. We're not kids anymore. They can't beak us apart. _I promise_."

"Justin" Jerry choked out in an exasperated voice. "I thought you'd understand the danger."

"I do, dad" Justin assured in a calm tone. His hold on Alex tightened instinctively. "But I don't care. I love her too much to care about what happens to me. Or her. If something happens to one of us, we're both going down together."

Alex smiled through her tears. All their anger on each other had melted away at once the minute their father began speaking. They were kind of like a rubber-band, stretching far away, but always snapping back together. Even the curse couldn't deform them permanently- they kept finding a way and getting back together. They loved each other too much for their own good, and yet, they didn't care.

"No you don't understand! This can also affect your-", Jerry began again. Before he could say another word more, Alex hung up the call. She had heard more than enough already. Period.

"-Children", Jerry mumbled against the dial tone. Truth be told, he had somewhat expected this outcome. He had expected them to rebel, to choose each other over everything else. But he wondered if they knew they were choosing each other over their _children_ as well. Anything could happen to them….

"_I will protect you (no matter what)_

_I will protect you only (that's enough for me)…"_

* * *

"That was close", Amelia blinked as she watched the car that had just been about to hit her drive past her. Her heart was still beating fast with the adrenalin rush.

"That's three times now," Jonathan mumbled, standing beside her with his arm around her shoulder. "What is with you and speeding cars?"

She shrugged. "Hey, I didn't die. I am safe. Again. It's a good thing."

He opened his mouth to scold her, but she beat him to it. "You are not telling my mom."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Alex trusted me with your safety when she let you walk to school with me. I need to watch out for you."

She rolled her eyes. "You _are_ watching out for me." She held up a hand to silence him before he could speak. "This is a big city. There would be rushing cars. Big deal!"

"It is a big deal when-AMY!" he pushed her to the pavement just in time to save her from being run over by a car. "That's the fourth time."

"Damn", she placed a hand over her pounding chest, "that was _so _close."

* * *

After saying their "I love you"s hundreds and hundreds times over and over again and a hundred reassuring kisses, Justin finally managed to calm Alex down. "Promise me you'll never leave me?" she sniffled, as he made her wash her face and drink some water. He held her hair back while he did, slowly rocking her in his arms.

"You _know_ I'd never leave you", he whispered softly, his eyes shining with promise and determination, "And I won't let you leave me either, no matter what happens." He took her hand in his, and placed it over his chest, made her feel his heart-beat. "I am right here Alex."

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, the feeling of his heart beating magically calming her down. At last she was feeling a bit relieved.

By the time the kids were back home, they had freshened up enough to act normal. Justin was sitting on the couch, staring at Alex to make sure she was alright, while she sat at the kitchen table waiting for the kids. They wanted to be close, but they didn't want to risk making the kids suspicious.

"Hey, we're home." Amelia announced cheerfully, throwing her back-pack on the ground.

Alex straightened up at the sound of the door unlocking and the sound of her daughter's voice, shaken out of her thoughts. She fumbled through the table, her nerves still unsteady and her fingers still trembling, to take the letter in her hands. "Nathan, your mom gave you this."

Jonathan's eyes glazed over. These were the first words he had ever heard from his mother. He almost snatched the letter out of Alex's hands and read it fast, holding it close to his chest. Tears ran through his eyes as he finished and handed it over to Amelia, along with a warning glare to let her know that she shouldn't be foolish enough to mess with the letter. As Amelia read the letter, Jonathan hugged Alex tightly. "Thank you so much Aunt Alex! I owe you my life! You don't know how much this means to me."

Alex patted his back, sighing contently at how perfect her life was at the moment. She found it hard to believe that they were all mere puppets of magic and fate, mere victims of the cruel facts of life. Was a simple curse really going to rip everything apart and break everyone down?

* * *

**A/N: before you kill me, no I have no intentions of killing the kids. Anyways, hope you liked it. We're almost there people, the climax is coming. Please review! :) This was an unplanned update out of my schedule. I'm thinking of finishing this quickly, provided reviews don't drop. Sounds good? **


	20. Ch 19: The trainwreck

**Chapter 19: The train-wreck **

* * *

The night was like any other night- silent, pleasant, with the moon trying to shine through the envelope of thick smog, and a light breeze making the curtains of the windows dance, with Alex in Justin's arms, and his hands tangled in her hair, but this time, they just knew that something was wrong. There was some kind of urgency in their heart, in the way their heart was beating against each other. Something in the back of her head was telling her that something bad was going to happen soon, and though she did her best to ignore it, her heart jumped to her throat at the slightest sound of her cell phone buzzing with a new tweet. She found herself holding on to Justin all night, as if he'd disappear if she let go of him. He couldn't sleep either; afraid some vortex would open and suck her in if he closed his eyes. As long as he had his arms around her, nothing could take her away from him. _Nothing_….

Morning came, and the dreadful feeling intensified. Something just didn't _feel _right. She felt like something bad was _already_ happening, like the Universe was already working to break them apart, carrying out its nasty work behind the safety of a veil, and now this veil would be taken off her eyes.

"You can stay with me today too", Justin whispered softly in her ears, taking her hand in his. For some reason, he felt the increasing need to do that, he felt a need to have some physical contact with her to assure himself he was still there. "As long as you don't repeat what you did yesterday. And/or find new ways to annoy me and/or embarrass me and/or scandalize me."

She laughed even through her fears at his dorky words, and gently ruffled his hair. They could at least try to pretend everything was still alright. "Okay, egghead."

* * *

"Are you seriously still not talking to each other?" Alex attacked the boys at the break-fast table. Something bad was going to happen, and she didn't want them fighting when it did. Period. "Come on guys, get over it already! What are you? Five?"

Justin rolled his eyes, Jonathan shook his head. "Sorry Aunt Alex, just not yet."

Alex sighed heavily. The more time passed, the more they were walking away from each other. Why was this happening? Was this part of the curse?

She could only hope and pray that it wasn't. And leave it in the hands of magic and fate. It's funny how powerful we humans are when it comes to destiny…. We build our own destiny? Those are just big old dialogs in movies and books. In real life, no matter how hard we work, circumstances would always control our lives. She was sure of this; sure that she was just a puppet of fate.

* * *

**Two hours later**

"Em, get on the pavement!" Jonathan scolded as Amelia walked through the street carelessly. Again. Why did she keep on doing this? Was she doing this on purpose just to torture him? "I am serious! Didn't you learn your lesson yet?"

Amelia rolled her eyes, ignored him, and continued tweeting on her cell phone, paying no heed to what was around her. "I'm lucky Nathan. Nothing will happen to me. You'll see."

Suddenly he heard the sound of a speeding car, and turned around to see that it was headed her way. His eyes widened when he noticed that Amelia was still walking on without noticing it, making no attempts to get away. "AMY! _Look out_!"

* * *

"Why so quiet?" Justin whispered, as they kept driving towards his chamber. He had tried turning on the stereo of the car, even playing some of those terrible "ugh" songs that she loved, just so they could get rid of some of the tension, but after about two minutes she had turned it off. And then the dreadful silence had begun. It was so tangible; a hand could just shoot from this silence and strangle their throats.

"You know why", Alex mumbled in an irritated tone. Her eyes were on the road all the time. She was half-expecting the evil witch to show up again. She actually hoped she would. She wanted to meet her and figure out a way to break the curse. She was ready to do _anything_. She was even ready to take the witch down in a battle, if that was what was needed. Whatever it took to be with Justin. But of course the witch didn't show up! When did she ever get something that she needed? See, destiny would always overpower everything else.

"I love you…." Justin whispered suddenly, looking at her face with tears in his eyes. He hadn't even realized when they had staring welling up, but now his vision was blurred, and he couldn't see her properly. That only intensified this pain in his chest, all his emotions trying to explode at once, and his lips quivered like a little child's. "I'm sorry for everything Alex."

"Sorry for what?" she whispered back, staring back at him as he slowly parked the car on a side of the road.

When he finally wiped his tears away, he noticed that her face was a strange hue of orange in the shadow of the trees and the light from the sun. He had stared at her face so many times for so many years, he had every little detail memorized, but today, she looked strikingly more beautiful. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ears. "For getting us into trouble with magic like this…."

She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but forced herself to chuckle normally. "Nah-uh, _dad _got us into trouble with magic."

He looked down, unable to meet her gaze. Why did it feel like they were saying goodbye? Why did he feel like he had to say everything he wanted to say, sort everything out, speak the unspoken? "You know that's not what I meant..."

"Yeah I know _exactly _what you meant", she snapped, letting out a deep breath. "You are sorry that you fell in love with me."

He winced. "You know that's not true, Alex. I don't regret it _one bit._ I'm just…." He sighed, finding it difficult to phrase his words when walls seemed to be closing in on his chest. "I just didn't think we'd be in such a big mess today. And I'm sorry for leading you into this."

She nodded, her eyes shining with understanding. She gently nudged him with her elbow, plastering a grin on her face. "It was my fault too, but hey, I'm glad you're taking the blame."

He shook his head in amusement, a tiny hint of smile on his lips. But it was a sad smile, the same kind they gave each other before every goodbye. His eyes shone with what could only be love, and his face had that same look that she had seen all her life when they were being playful. "Even in the face of unknown, unseen danger like this, you'd keep on being super snarky?"

She shrugged, looking away. Now that he just reminded her of every single moment in their lives with that one sentence, _now _she was going to cry, and she felt like she couldn't cry, like she couldn't let Justin see her cry, like it'd be the last thing he would ever see before they're torn apart. Her heart was breaking with every beat. She needed to distract herself fast. She began digging into her purse to get her cell phone out. "Sneaky comes naturally to me. I can't- oh my God. Oh no!"

"What happened?" Justin asked in alarm as he saw her eyes widen dramatically. His heart skipped a beat in fear. "Alex?"

Alex held out a piece of paper from her purse. "That was Amy's assignment. I was supposed to sign it and give it back to her but I forgot. It's today. Justin, we have to get to her school. Teleport us now!"

Justin heaved a sigh of relief that it was something so simple. But then his brain caught on to the later part of what she said. "What! No! I'm not using magic!" he protested immediately, starting the engine of his car. "Who knows what will happen to the curse if I use magic? We're driving."

Alex crossed her arms over her chest, frowning. "Ugh at least drive fast! We can't afford her losing marks on another assignment!"

"Can't she get an extension?" he asked curiously.

She stared at him like he grew two heads. "It's AMY! This _was _the extension!"

* * *

Jonathan dived in quickly, grabbing Amelia's hand and shoving her to the pavement just in time. "ARE YOU NUTS?" he yelled, hugging her tightly, as the car drove past them and passers-by gave them weird, disapproving looks.

Amelia winced. "Hey, I am okay. I told you I was lucky."

"Yeah, lucky that you have me." he snapped, pulling back from her to look at her face. He cupped her cheeks and gazed into her eyes. "Stop doing that. _Please_."

She nodded. "I am sorry. And I am lucky to have you in my life. I love you." She admitted before she could realize that she was saying it out loud. She just felt like…. like she had to say it, like it was her only chance.

He took in a deep breath at her words, and let it out slowly, contently. "I love you too….. I don't want anything to happen to you. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." He whispered, bringing his lips down on hers. She responded eagerly, but with a certain sense of urgency. Something in the back of her head was telling her that something bad was going to happen, and though she did her best to ignore it, she found her heart pounding uncontrollably against her rib-cage.

* * *

…

…

…

No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!

The car stopped as Justin hit the brakes harshly and Alex let out a gasp. They couldn't believe their eyes. They didn't _want to_ believe their eyes.

These couldn't be their children. These had to be some other people, looking like them and dressed like them. Because their kids couldn't be kissing each other! No! It had to be someone else. It had to be. It had to be. It. had. To. Be.

….

….

Jonathan pulled back from Amelia and both their faces were clearly visible.

All hopes they still had, all options of pretending shattered to the ground. Alex bit back a helpless sob at the realization that her son just kissed her daughter. "Oh my gosh!" she whimpered, covering her mouth with her hands and shaking her head to shake the image away.

Justin stared on helplessly, traumatized by what he saw, and too shocked to react. Now everything was coming to him slowly. Did this just happen? Was this really happening? Were they really so involved with each other that they didn't even notice when their own children crossed the boundaries of platonic and started falling in love? Were they really this blind? Did he really destroy everything for Alex?

They stood frozen in their car seats, watching their children beaming at each other, then holding hands and walking away.

That's when Alex snapped out of the trance. She stepped out of the car, slammed the door behind her, and ran up to her children. Justin followed, still feeling overwhelmed by what just happened. Now he understood how his father must have felt. Did they really hurt their parents _so much?_

"Amelia. Jonathan." Alex called out behind them.

The kids slowly turned around, raising an eyebrow at her curiously. Alex's gaze dropped to their intertwined hands, glaring, and they broke away from each other.

That dreadful feeling in Amelia just kept escalating. "What's up, mom?" she asked casually, ignoring it.

Alex let out a bitter laugh, shaking her head again. "You tell me what's up with you two."

"Umm, nothing." Jonathan lied quickly. "We were just on our way to school."

Alex huffed. Not only were they dating each other, they were also lying constantly! "Really?"

"Yeah", Jonathan lied again. "I was just explaining to Amy how a nuclear reactor works. She wanted to-"

**_Smack!_**

Alex gasped out loud when she saw Justin slap Jonathan hard across his face. "Justin!" she cried out, holding him back. "No, don't!"

Jonathan clutched his aching cheek with his hand, tears welling up in his eyes as people stared on at the public drama.

Justin gritted his teeth, yanking his arm out of Alex's grasp. "You two. Get inside the car. NOW!"

Amelia trembled at the tone of his voice. She had never seen her uncle so furious in her entire life. _Never. _

"Mom…." She whispered helplessly, pleading her mother with her eyes. Her mother was always there for her, no matter what. She didn't…. lose her mother, right?

Alex's eyes softened when she looked at her children, looking so afraid, so helpless, but then the images of them kissing flashed in her eyes, and she looked away, a sense of pain and defeat and guilt flooding through her altogether. "Come on!" she spat out bitterly, getting inside the car.

Jonathan and Amelia glanced at each other fearfully. Now what was going to happen?

* * *

**A/N: I'll keep the note short this time. Hope you liked this chapter, please review, thanks! :)**

* * *

**Side-note: DAVID HENRIE FANS: **iheartdisney128 **and I are trying to trend **_#shirtlessdavidhenrie_**. Maybe you could help please? :) We fans never give David TTs, we should do something :) **


	21. Ch 20: Over

**Chapter 20: Over**

* * *

Throughout the ride, no one had dared to speak a word, each too occupied with their own thoughts and fears. Back at home, Alex had slammed the door open in Justin's face, still mad at him for the slap, while Justin had quietly entered, looking down at the ground with guilt and regret. He still couldn't believe he just slapped his precious little son. His son meant the world to him. But at that particular moment, he just… snapped. He was angry at Jonathan, and he was angrier at himself, and it all came out like that. He wished he hadn't done that, wished that he could take it back, but… Sigh.

Amelia and Jonathan followed them inside, shivers of trepidation running down their spines. They sat down on the couch quietly, but had the good sense to sit away from each other, or Justin would have lost his mind again. Alex sat down on the love-seat, while Justin stood at one end of the room, staring outside the window.

For a few minutes, all they could hear was the sound of Justin's annoying Captain Jim Bob Sherwood clock ticking. Alex chewed on her bottom lip, waiting impatiently for Justin to speak.

"How long?" That was the first question Justin asked since the encounter back at the road. His voice was calm now, firm, restrained, yet pained, broken, frustrated. On one hand he was blaming himself for being such a worthless parent, and on the other hand he was feeling guilty for being such a worthless son. On one hand, the fact that his kids were… it was killing him, and on the other hand, the fact that they did the same thing to their parents…. He could just die in shame.

"Always…." Jonathan replied softly, snapping his father out of his thoughts. His voice quivered at first, afraid that his father would react again, but then his eyes darted to Amelia and his tone cemented. "I've always loved her."

Justin's eyes glazed over. Maybe Freud was right after all. If someone asked him how long he loved Alex, he would have said the same thing. But that didn't mean their children could….. "Did you guys….." he trailed off, choking on the words. Even the images made him feel sick, and the images of what he did to Alex made him feel even sicker. Gosh, will he ever be able to look at her the same way again?

"No, no, no." they said quickly, shaking their heads for emphasis.

Justin sighed in relief at hearing that answer, but frowned when another fear entered his mind. "Would you have?"

Jonathan answered that with a "no", while Amelia answered at the same time, with a hesitant "probably", wincing a second too late.

Justin sighed. Everything was just the way for them like it was for him and Alex. How could he not see it before? How could he have not known this was coming? But he was an adult when they had started dating, and Alex was almost an adult, mature enough to know what she really wanted and make her choice. And they had never looked back after that. Their kids were just…. kids. Did they even realize what they were doing? He sighed at himself, and took a seat beside Alex, rubbing his forehead with his hands. "Do you guys realize that what you are doing is wrong?"

"It's not wrong." Jonathan said calmly, but resolutely. His eyes were fixed at his father's face for a while, till he fell on his knees in front of Alex. "Aunt Alex, look, I'm really sorry. I didn't want any of this to happen. Neither of us did. We didn't want to hurt you. But it happened. And now we're sorry. But this isn't wrong. We are doing nothing wrong. She's my cousin. I can marry her, it's not illegal. And if we have kids, there's a really small chance of birth defects. I've looked it all up in the internet. Trust me, it's nothing wrong."

Amelia whimpered when she saw her mother look so sad, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel glad that Jonathan was fighting for her, for them.

Alex chuckled bitterly. God, if only they knew what they really were!

"Go to your rooms. Your _own_ rooms." Justin ordered suddenly. "NOW!"

The kids knew better than to protest. They cast one last forlorn and pleading look at Alex before they stormed up the stairs and into their rooms, ready to sob their hearts out.

And then the awkward silence returned again. Alex bit on her lip one more time, waiting for Justin to speak. Justin kept tracing random patterns on the table with his finger absent-mindedly, too afraid to say it out loud. "We failed…." He finally breathed out.

His words were so sudden, it startled Alex. She sat up with a start, staring at him. It scared her how she couldn't read what he was thinking. All his emotions seemed to be jumbled all together, nothing displaying on his face. As for her? She didn't even want to think anything. She just wanted to close her eyes and pretend like none of this was happening.

"I hurt him…." He breathed again, his voice thick with unshed tears. "I can't believe I hurt my…."

"It's ok, Justin." she whispered, speaking for the first time since they returned home. "You didn't mean to. I'm sure Nathan will understand once he calms down….. And I'm sure you'll understand them too, right Justin?" she asked, looking at him hopefully. He had to understand. They had done the same thing, after all. If he didn't understand, he'd be the biggest hypocrite alive. She knew by then that she understood. She was still in shock, a bit hurt, a bit upset, a bit angry even, but she wasn't against this relationship, wrong as it was. Justin would understand too, right?

He nodded, swallowing as he braced himself for the hardest part. "We have to tell them. They need to know."

Alex howled. "I know, I know. But how? How do we tell them that we…."

Justin rubbed his forehead again. "Come on…."

* * *

Within half an hour, the kids were seated in the living room couch again. The look in their parents' eyes had changed now. It told them that they had made up their final decision. The anger and sorrow had now given way for guilt and regret in their eyes. Justin kept staring at the ground, while Alex kept looking everywhere except at their faces. They could only hope this was good news.

"We've thought about it, and we've decided that you guys can be together." Alex whispered softly, holding her breath for the sighs of relief that followed. "But you guys need to know some thing before you decide if you want to be together." Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"We've already decided", Amelia said, smiling. "Thank you so much mom. We are so-"

"-Justin and I", Alex interrupted, raising her voice over Amelia's. Her eyes closed as she struggled to get the confession out. She almost wanted to back out and let Justin do this, but he was so broken already, she was afraid this would hurt him in a way that would be irreparable. She had to be the one to do it. Her lips rustled against each other in her quest to get them to open. "We're", the words got stuck, they refused to come out. _Don't think Alex. Just say it. _She took in a deep breath. "We're dating. You're our kids. Justin is Emmy's father, and I'm Nathan's mother." Alex blurted out quickly, squeezing her eyes shut more tightly so that she didn't have to see their reaction. Kind of like how a rabbit closes its eyes so that it can't see its predator and thinks that the predator can't see it either.

The room was filled only with the sound of the clock again, all heart-beats and labored breaths seemingly discarded, as the kids processed the new piece of information, and the parents waited for their reaction.

"But you are…." Jonathan gulped, looking at his parents' faces in confusion. "You're siblings, right?"

Alex nodded sharply. Her hands were already shaking with fear. She just wanted Justin to hold them, but who knew how the kids would react to that now?

"And that means that Amy and I are…." Jonathan's eyes widened as he came to the unbelievable conclusion. "_Siblings?"_

"We are so sorry" Alex pleaded, breaking down into tears. "We didn't mean to. We just fell in love. Just like you guys….."

"Why didn't you tell us that before?" Jonathan demanded, pushing aside all the other questions that he always had in mind for the day that he would meet his mother. He still couldn't believe it. _Alex_ was his mother? She had been right in front of his eyes all his life, and he never even knew? How could they keep a secret like this from them?

Alex whimpered. Again, she wanted to back out and let Justin do this, but Justin was leaning against the wall for support by then, and she couldn't break him more. "We're sorry. We didn't know how to tell you. We're so twisted, so…." she choked.

"_Sick_." Jonathan completed bitterly, getting up from his seat. With Alex still sitting, his figure hovering over her was intimidating. "You guys are sick! You…. You destroyed our lives! I…. I hate you!"

"Jonathan…." Alex pleaded.

"You…. You are traitors! You cheated us! You cheated everyone! You!" He yelled furiously. Now he was exploding. Every word he said was like a bullet to each of their chests. His words were aimed at both his parents, but his eyes were fixed on his mother. "I don't even want to see you guys again! I was better off on my own before! I don't want a mother! I don't _have_ a mother! You've only caused problems ever since you moved in! You destroyed my perfect life! I want it all back! I want you to go away! I don't want to see you _ever _again! I HATE YOU!" he yelled, storming up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door behind him and locking it.

Alex slid to the floor, her tears finally drying out as she stared blankly in front of her.

That's when Amelia broke out of her trance. "You're my father….." she finally breathed out, having remained silent through all of this, as if she didn't hear what just happened between her mother and her brother, and stared at Justin in a dazed state. "I spent my whole life hating _you? _I thought you didn't care about me? I…." she shook her head, images of all those times when Justin was there for her coming back to her. She ran up to him and hugged him tightly. The word was sticking at the tip of her tongue. "Daddy!" She whispered softly. It felt so good to finally be able to call someone that.

…

_I HATE YOU_! Alex closed her eyes. _I don't want a mother. I don't have a mother. _A tear-drop escaped her eyes. _I want you to go away! I don't want to see you ever again. _A sob escaped her lips. Now what was she going to do? Was Jonathan ever going to forgive her? Or would she really have to move out? The world seemed to be whirling around her, shattered everything. This was not how it was supposed to be….

….

Justin closed his eyes and breathed in, feeling a tinge of relief at the fact that his daughter didn't hate him, like he always feared she would. "I'm sorry…." He whispered softly. The sincerity showed in his tone.

"You were always there for me", Amelia continued, ignoring his words, as if she didn't even hear him, as if she was in her own little world. "And I always kept wishing bad things for you. I always wanted to… I am _so _sorry, daddy. I'm going to fix everything, _I promise." _

Justin laughed bitterly. Gosh, he wished they could do that! He wished it was that easy! "Nothing can be fixed." The words came out like it was a sharp knife lubricated with poison. "Everything's broken already. We are already….."

"Over." Alex completed for him.

* * *

**A/N: Phew! Too much drama, eh? But we need a miracle to break the curse, remember? We're almost there people. Just one more chapter and then the epilogue. Please review up and tell me what you think! :)**

**P.s. if anyone cares, I uploaded a Dalena vs. Justin/Selena analysis video at my youtube. The link is in my profile. Go check it out. Okay now I'm done shamelessly promoting myself :P**


	22. Ch 21: Every heart is shining on today

**Chapter title and lyrics from "every heart". **

* * *

**Chapter 21: every heart is shining on today**

**Three days later**

During the next three days, they didn't say a word to each other. They couldn't sleep or eat properly, let alone go out for school or work. They just locked themselves in their rooms and cried all day, went over the sweet memories, the wretched happenings, and the things that were about to come in the future. What did such a terrible future have to await them?

Justin and Alex didn't even look at each other, trying to delay the inevitable, and avoid the separation that was to come. Finally, they accidentally came face to face in the kitchen when they had both gone there to grab a bottle of water. Alex was taking a bottle out of the refrigerator while Justin came behind her, completely unaware of his presence.

"Alex…." Justin breathed, stopping in his tracks. His eyes focused on her, blurring everything else out, and he felt like the thing standing in front of him was a broken doll with tear-streaked face. His heart broke at the sight. Why did this have to happen to his Alex? He wanted to rush to her, hold her in his arms and tell her that it was going to be okay, but he knew it would be just another lie he'd be telling, and they couldn't go that way. When one wakes up from a sweet dream, the grim reality seems grimmer, after all. He had to do it now, had to face their fate. His voice quivered. "We need to talk…"

Alex froze at her place, only her eyelids clasped together. All the images from all her life flashed in front of her at that moment, the ones she wanted to cherish forever lasting only a few seconds, and the painful ones seemingly lasting a million light-years. She had heard people say that someone remembers all the important events of his or her life at that time of death. She must have been dying a little bit more with every goodbye then. As she turned around to face him, her mouth opened with a sigh. "I know. You're breaking up with me. I get it."

He wanted to shake his head and say no. Instead, he took her hand in his and squeezed. Her touch seemed to burn him again. She was so close, yet so far away from him already. He could literally feel her drifting away from him. How could things change so much in just three days? "You know I don't want to…."

"But you have to", she faked a dry smile as she finished his sentence. "I know, my son wants nothing to do with me. He wants me out of this house." Her eyes wondered around the room as she said the last part, her eyes taking in the sight of the house where she was once again daring to dream. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision of her dream home. "If I keep staying here, everything would be so awkward it would kill all of us. I get it. I'll move away with Amy."

"I love you…." Justin whispered abruptly, and pulled her into a tight hug. His eyes closed, squeezing two teardrops out. She was in his arms, yet he could feel her slipping away from his grasp, as if she was sand clenched in his fist. He was feeling so empty, so incomplete already, even with her in his arms. "I am tired of saying goodbyes to you again and again and again. I don't _want_ to say goodbye…." He whispered, his voice thick with his frustration.

She let out a sob, hugging him back. She was just as tired as him. "Then don't say goodbye. Just skip it this time…" She whispered, tightening her hold around him.

For a few moments, time could stand still, and they could just take in each other's comforting presence…

* * *

Amelia stood at the stairs, over-hearing their parents' conversation. No, no, no, no, NO! No, this wasn't happening! They weren't breaking up, no! Everything was just beginning to go the right way! Their whole family was just re-united. They could work hard, and everything would have been alright. This wasn't how it was supposed to be…

She nodded to herself. They could give up on themselves, but _she_ wouldn't. No. All her life, she secretly wanted her mother and her father to get back together, wanted them to be happy together, and now that it was about to happen, she wasn't going to wreck anything wreck it.

With this resolution in mind, she stormed up to Jonathan's room, stopping when she reached the closed door. She hadn't seen him in three days, she had no idea where they stood, and it was somewhat scary to knock at his door. But she was Amelia, she wasn't scared of anything, no matter what it was, and right now, she was feeling a strange sense of _mission. _She slowly turned the doorknob, entered the room and locked the door behind her. He was lying on his bed, on his back, staring at the ceiling blankly. He didn't even acknowledge her presence. His room was a mess, it looked like he had taken out his anger on his things, everything was broken. _Just like us_, Amelia thought in her mind, and it only made her furious.

"Cut the crap", she spat out angrily. She tapped her foot on the floor, waiting impatiently for him to say something. The silence was terrifying.

Jonathan didn't move, just let out a sigh. "It doesn't bother you that we're siblings and we can't date?" He mumbled, almost in a whisper.

His words and his tone took her by surprise. She wasn't expecting him to speak so calmly, and she wasn't expecting him to talk about them instead of their parents. She quickly recuperated and crossed her arms over her chest. "Who said we can't date?"

He chuckled bitterly. "Everyone?"

His chuckle sent a shiver down her spine. She did not like what she was feeling… She narrowed her eyes at him. "So we are siblings and this is forbidden. Get over it! When you started dating me, you knew I was your cousin. What difference does it make?"

"One. We can't marry legally anymore", Jonathan began.

"One. We're still legally cousins. So we can still marry." She countered.

"And two. We'd have to take the wizard competition. The wizard council will figure out we're siblings when the time comes. They are going to split us apart." Jonathan pointed out, still staring blankly.

Amelia bit her lip, new worries taking over her. "Wait, so you mean the Wizard Council will figure out that we are siblings and tear mom and dad apart?"

"I don't care about them." Jonathan snapped rudely, his eyes finally snapping to her face. "They can do whatever the hell they want!"

Amelia shook her head, staring at him incredulously. "I just don't get it! What the hell are you mad with them about? The fact that they fell in love? You fell in love with me too!"

"They _knew _they were siblings!" Jonathan yelled.

"You _knew _we were cousins!" she yelled back. "There isn't a fucking big difference so stop being such a wuss!"

Jonathan bit his lip in search for words, and came up with a new accusation. "Why didn't they tell us? How can they keep such a _huge _secret from us for so long?"

She shook her head again, one hand absent-mindedly clutching her wrist. "You can't seriously be mad at them for not telling us! We didn't tell them about us either. We couldn't! You should understand the damn problems with that better than everyone else!"

He hissed sharply, finding it difficult to defend himself and stand his ground.

"You are just mad for no reason!" she continued, pointing her finger at him. When he winced, she knew she was hitting the nail at the right places. "You are just mad because things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to be so just stop the bullshit! Things aren't going to go your way, you will have to work hard and make sure you can turn it all around.-"

"- Oh so now you start talking like a motivational speaker?" he threw in.

She ignored the insult and ranted on, "-And I know I am not going to let your damn anger split all of us apart!" Her eyes gleamed with a spark of determination, all her emotions centered together on one point, like they were a big circle and she was looking at its centre. "I want mom and dad to be together. I want you and me to be together. I want everything to work out! And you are not going to wreck it! You don't have a say in this! You can't make mom and me move out! Do you want us to move out? Do you _really_ want us out of your life forever? Answer me!" she demanded furiously. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she panted to catch her breath.

Jonathan blinked in realization of what he was about to do. Images of a life without the women flashed in his eyes. He felt so….. empty. Did he really want to throw his mother out of his house, out of his life? Did he really want Amelia to go away too? Forever? _Forever? _He shook his head firmly. "No. I…."

"You want everything to work out." She completed for him. There was something burning deep inside her heart, some kind of passion, some wild desire. She felt like something was slowly building up inside her, ready to burst.

He nodded his affirmation, blinking back his tears. "But everything's so twisted now. I don't know how anything can ever be fixed again, Em. I just don't know…."

"I don't know it either", she took in a deep breath, staring at him with resolute eyes, "but I do know that I am not going to let anything bad happen to us. I won't let anything tear us apart. I won't!" Her hands formed into a fist, her eyes now gleaming with the intensity of fire. "_I wish all the problems would just go away_!" As she yelled, she felt a swirl of magic start from her and wipe through the room, through the house, all in the fraction of a second. Jonathan jumped up in his bed, his eyes wide in panic.

"Mom! Dad!" they yelled together, dashing out of the room and running down the stairs hurriedly.

Justin and Alex rushed out of the kitchen, meeting them half-way. "What happened? Are you guys okay?" Alex asked worriedly, hugging her kids tightly. Magic wasn't going to hurt them for her mistakes, right? She was relieved to see them nod. She sighed contently.

When the panic was gone, she realized that Jonathan didn't push her away. Was he…. Was he finally forgiving her then?

"We are fine." Amelia said, breaking away from her. "I don't know what just happened. The room just went….." she gestured with her hands, rolling her eyes.

"I've been there before", Justin mumbled under his breath, sending a pointed glance at Alex with his eyes.

Alex nodded. She remembered wishing that her parents never even met, and how that came true. She shuddered as she remembered how they could have been wiped away from existence. And then she shuddered again when she realized that her daughter might have made a wish like that too. "Amy, what did you wish for?"

Amelia stuttered. "I… I wished for all the problems to go away. Why?"

Justin and Alex glanced at each other. Was it possible that she managed to…. break the curse? Magic did do whatever it wanted. They could only hope. They were finally seeing a ray of hope amidst all the darkness. Maybe they were-

"You can stay." Jonathan said suddenly. "I want you to stay. I don't want you to go away. I don't know what I was thinking! I was so mad! You know I don't hate you, right? I could never hate you. I love you!" His voice was firm, but he couldn't look at his mother's eyes, ashamed of himself

Alex felt relief wash through her, as she hugged him once again. "Of course I know that. I love you too sweetie. It's all okay…. Don't think about it, ok? We'll figure something out."

Her eyes met Justin's and he nodded, sending her a half smile to let her know that he was with her. _I love you, _she mouthed, smiling back at him. _Love you too, _he mouthed back.

And finally, they felt at peace.

* * *

"_Round and round the planets revolve around the sun_

_And we always seek after love and peace, forever more_

_Growing, growing, woe baby we can work it out_

_Look up at the sky, every heart is shining on today…"_

* * *

**A/N: I need to write the epilogue now, so don't expect me to update quickly, not with us tweeting all the time :P Just rewriting this chapter took this long. Hope you liked it. PLEASE review. And 300 reviews, yay! Thanks so much guys :) you guys are awesome! **


	23. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

* * *

Jerry called them an hour later to let them know that the curse was somehow broken. Alex still refused to answer the call, so Justin had to. After a long conversation over the phone, and two video chats over the internet, things were finally settled between them, their parents finally accepted their relation. Justin made the wise decision of not telling them about their kids though, that would have been too much to take in at the same time for the poor old songs.

Amelia smiled to herself when she realized that it was her determination that broke the curse. That was so great!

And then her parents sat down with her in the living room to lay down the rules. Justin kept looking away, but Alex kept ordering her, all too casually. "No staying in each other's rooms after 9. No sneaking into each other's rooms either, your dad will have your wands. No kissing in front of us, please!"

"Same applies for you guys too." Amelia countered, smirking at them.

Alex glared at her, her face twisting into a frown. "Fine! Now go!"

Amelia looked up at her mother blankly. "Umm, where?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "I don't know! Don't you have _any place _to go to other than sit here in front of my nose?"

"Alex", Justin warned, opening his mouth to scold her, but Amelia had already teleported away. He sighed, shaking his head, "You are unbelievable."

She pouted, battling her eyelashes. "But you still love me…."

He couldn't help but smile at her. "I do…"

* * *

It took Jonathan a week to make everything normal with Alex, to get back to that comfort zone and gain each other's trust again, but with Amelia's interference, things were finally alright between them. After two weeks, he finally began calling her 'mom.'

It took one month for Justin and Jonathan to patch up their quarrel. They weren't angry anymore; they just didn't know how to apologize. They both felt guilty and responsible for their actions. Finally, the girls locked them together in a room; where they talked and sorted things out.

All awkwardness was gone within two more months. Things were finally going great.

* * *

Two months before the wizard competition, Amelia dragged her father and her brother to the volcano land to get all of their powers drained by some random wizard. Yeah, she loved her powers, but she loved her family more. And now, no powers meant no wizard competition! Simple magic logic. Now no one will found out that they were siblings, that Justin and Alex were dating, so no one could split them apart. They would be safe.

* * *

Their secret stayed a secret as they moved out for college. Justin and Alex moved to the country, enjoying the relative quiet there. They could stay there for only a while though. They had to rush back to New York when Max's son was born. They had to arrange Max's wedding, plan out every single detail.

It was during the wedding that Jonathan proposed to Amelia. She turned him down flat, saying marriage wasn't her thing. But after much persuasion from Alex, and many lectures from Justin about how lucky they were that they could marry, she reluctantly gave in.

But of course she had to do it her way. They eloped and married, successfully gaining scolding from the entire Russo family. Finally, she settled down in LA, admitting that yes, married life didn't suck as much as she thought it would. And they lived together happily ever after.

As for Justin and Alex? They weren't ripped apart by magic anymore. They stuck together, by each others' side, through thick and thin. As twisted as the facts of life were, these were mere facts. A touch here, a bit of polishing there, and these could be twisted according to their wish, making their life perfect….

Well, almost perfect, since Alex finally did manage to wreck his car by running it into a tree.

"_ALEX!"_

"_WHAT? I- YOUR CAR'S BREAK FAILED, YOUR FAULT!"_

-The end-

* * *

**A/N: *sigh* This is finally over. And as I mentioned before, this was my last jalex chapter fic. I may write one-shots in the future if I'm ever struck by ideas, but right now, I don't have any more jalex-es to post. **

**It has been an awesome journey. I had great fun writing jalex, and you guys have always been so nice to me, always giving such encouraging reviews. I will miss you guys a lot. Thank you for helping me believe in myself :) **

**If anyone is wondering what happens to "Blame her best friend", sorry, I met a dead-end, no more ideas, so I'm discontinuing it. Thought I should let you know, I hate it when authors keep readers hanging. Feel free to pick it up if you want to :) **


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